Is the P46 still a thing?

Not officially — HMRC replaced it with the starter checklist. Employers who still say "P46" almost always mean this form.

Fill in the HMRC starter checklist (P46) online

The HMRC starter checklist is the form a new employee fills in when they start a job without a P45, or when they have a student or postgraduate loan. It replaced the P46. Your answers tell your new employer which tax code to use on your first pay and whether to take student loan deductions.

The starter checklist is what you complete when you begin a job without a P45. It replaced the P46, which is still what most people search for and what plenty of employers still call it.

Get the blank from GOV.UK, complete it here, sign it and email it to your employer.

Open your copy of the form

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Starter checklist on GOV.UK

Filling it in, section by section

Employee’s personal details (questions 1 to 7): Last name, first names, sex, date of birth, home address with postcode and country, National Insurance number (if known) and employment start date. Write your first names in full: the form says not to use initials or shortened names, such as Jim for James. Sex is as shown on your birth certificate or gender recognition certificate.
Date of birth and Employment start date: Both use DD MM YYYY boxes, as does the declaration date. Put one digit in each box, so 3 March 2026 is 03 03 2026.
Employee statement (questions 8 to 10): Three yes/no questions lead you to one statement. If you have another job (question 8) or receive a State, workplace or private pension (question 9), choose statement C. Otherwise, question 10 asks whether, since 6 April, you have been paid from another job that has ended, or received Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Incapacity Benefit: yes means statement B, no means statement A.
Statement A, Statement B, Statement C: A means this is your first job since 6 April with none of those benefits, and your employer uses the current personal allowance. B means the personal allowance on a Week 1/Month 1 basis. C means tax code BR, used when you have another job or a pension. The form notes that no other government or HMRC benefits need to be considered.
Student loans (questions 11 to 13): If you have no student or postgraduate loan, go straight to the declaration. If you are still studying, left your course after 6 April this tax year, have repaid in full, or repay the Student Loans Company by Direct Debit, also skip to the declaration. Otherwise mark one plan type (Plan 1, 2, 4 or 5), and add Postgraduate loan as well if you have one.
Which plan you are on: The form’s own guide: Student Finance England is Plan 5 for courses starting on or after 1 August 2023, Plan 2 for 1 September 2012 to 31 July 2023, and Plan 1 before 1 September 2012. Student Finance Wales is Plan 2 from 1 September 2012 and Plan 1 before. Scotland (SAAS) is Plan 4 and Northern Ireland is Plan 1. If unsure, check your plan by signing in to your student loan account on GOV.UK.
Declaration: Full name in capital letters, signature and date. You are confirming the information is correct. The official PDF can be typed into and signed in PDFpad, then sent as a finished file.
Employer guidance (page 4): This page is for your employer, so you leave it blank. It tells them which tax code goes with each statement and which student loan plan to deduct first. Employers must keep the information for the current tax year and the next 3.

Filling it in neatly

Pick one employee statement (A, B or C) — getting this wrong is the usual cause of an emergency tax code.
Your National Insurance number goes in without spaces if the boxes are separate.
Give it to your employer, not to HMRC.
Keep a copy: if your tax code looks wrong in the first payslip, this is the document you will be asked about.

Common mistakes

Choosing statement A when you had another job earlier in the tax year, even one that has ended, or claimed Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Incapacity Benefit since 6 April. That is statement B.
Answering no to question 8 or 9 when you keep a second job or draw a pension. Either one means statement C.
Marking two plan types, such as Plan 1 and Plan 2. Mark only one plan, plus Postgraduate loan if it applies.
Skipping the form because you have a P45, when you have a student loan. The form says to fill it in either way.
Reusing a copy saved from an old job instead of downloading the current one from GOV.UK. The revision is printed at the foot of page 1 (currently HMRC 12/25).

Also searched as: P46, new starter form, HMRC starter form. This is a UK form.

Questions

Is the P46 still a thing?: Not officially — HMRC replaced it with the starter checklist. Employers who still say "P46" almost always mean this form.