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Issue a P45 form in QuickBooks Payroll

by Intuit•35• Updated 2 days ago

Learn more about how to email, download and issue P45 forms in QuickBooks Payroll. When an employee leaves or retires from your business, it's essential that you complete a P45 form in QuickBooks to help ensure accurate recording of their tax and National Insurance contributions.


Before you begin

 A P45 is given to employees who leave before the tax year ends and shows their earnings and tax up to their leaving date. Once you terminate an employee, their P45 form will be available in the HMRC/AE section of their employee profile. Before accessing the P45, make sure that you've made all the final payments to the employee and finalised their payslip. This will help ensure that the P45 includes accurate year-to-date figures.

For official guidance, visit the government P45 guide.

Note: A P45 is given to employees when they leave before the tax year ends. If they are still employed on 5th April, you will need to issue a P60 form instead.

Run the final payroll

Once you reach the employee’s final payroll, you’ll need to send the FPS (Full Payment Submission) to let HMRC know that you’ve paid the employee. If you’ve already paid the employee, the next FPS submission will include all the final details.

You can submit your Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC directly from either QuickBooks Payroll Core or Payroll Advanced.


Issue a P45 form

Follow the steps below to issue a P45 form based on your Payroll subscription:

Step 1: Mark the employee as a leaver

  1. Follow this link to complete the steps in product Open this link in a new window
  2. Select the name of the employee to open the profile. 
  3. Select Actions Image Alt Text, then select Change status. 
  4. From the Status dropdown ▼, select Terminated. 
  5. Select the Leave date and the Reason for status change.
  6. Select Save. 

The P45 form will be available once you run their last payroll.

Step 2: Give the employee their P45 form

The P45 form closes the employment record.  If the employee returns, you’ll need to add them as a new employee with a new payroll ID. 

  1. Follow this link to complete the steps in product Open this link in a new window
  2. From the Active Employees Image Alt Text, select Inactive Employees.
  3. Select your employee. 
  4. Select the Documents tab. 
  5. Next to P45, select View. This will open the form in a new tab.
  6. Download the form and send it to your employee.

For more help, see the HMRC link on what to do when an employee leaves.

Email or download a P45 form

  1. Follow this link to complete the steps in product Open this link in a new window
  2. Select the employee name to open the profile.
    Tip: If you can't find their name in the list, use the filter and select All employees.
  3. Select HMRC/AE forms.
  4. Select View to open the P45 form.
  5. You can choose to Email the form to the employee or Download it.
  6. If you want to send an email to the employee with their P45 as an attachment, select Send notification. You can also re-send a notification if needed.
QuickBooks Online Payroll AdvancedQuickBooks Online Payroll Standard

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