Updated for the 2026/27 tax year
The NT tax code
You’re not paying any tax on this income
What it does to your pay
NT means your employer takes no income tax from this income at all. It is not the same as a rate of zero: the rule also forbids your employer from REPAYING tax against this code, so a nil code cannot generate a refund in your pay the way a corrected ordinary code can.
Source: Reg 7(3)(c) creates "the nil tax code"; reg 33(1) is the operative rule and it forbids REPAYMENT as well as deduction — which is why a nil code is not a 0% rate.
A worked example
On pay of £30,000 for the year, NT makes £30,000 taxable and produces £0 of income tax. The standard code on the same pay would produce £3,486, so this code costs £3,486 less over the year.
Income tax only — National Insurance, student loan repayments and pension contributions are separate and are not included here.
How NT is written on a payslip
NT is the code. Anything printed after it is a marker, and the markers this site recognises are W1, M1, X and NONCUM — HMRC’s payroll names for the non-cumulative basis, which the regulations set out at regs 26–31 and which the emergency-code page explains in full. Whether a marker changes anything for THIS code is a question for the regulation quoted above, not for the marker.
The space is optional and payslips print it both ways. NT W1 and NTW1 are the same string as far as this site is concerned: the checker upper-cases what you type and strips the spaces out before it looks the code up, so either spelling reaches this page.
Is it right for you?
Check that the reason still applies. A nil code is issued for specific circumstances, and if those have changed, leaving it in place stores up an underpayment rather than avoiding one.
Whatever the answer, the code HMRC holds for you is the one that governs, and it is on your Personal Tax Account. If your tax code is wrong sets out how to get it changed.
Common questions
What does the NT tax code mean?
You’re not paying any tax on this income. Your employer takes no income tax against it, and may not repay tax against it either.
How much tax does NT take on £30,000 a year?
On pay of £30,000 for the year, NT makes £30,000 taxable and produces £0 of income tax. The standard code on the same pay would produce £3,486, a difference of £3,486 over the year. Income tax only — National Insurance, student loan repayments and pension contributions are separate and are not included.
Is NTW1 the same code as NT?
Yes. W1, M1, X and NONCUM are the markers HMRC uses for the non-cumulative basis, and a marker after NT leaves the code itself unchanged. The space is optional: this site's checker reads NTW1 and NT W1 identically, because it strips spaces before looking the code up.
Independent tool not affiliated with HMRC. For your official code, log in to your Personal Tax Account. Check your tax code on GOV.UK.
Letters and law are not the same thing. The PAYE Regulations create these codes by describing what they DO — “the basic rate code”, “the nil tax code” — and, with one exception, never write down the letters HMRC prints on your payslip. The letters are HMRC’s naming for those functions. This site labels which is which on every page, and the sources page shows the search behind that statement.
The figures and rules on this site are taken from the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003, the Income Tax Act 2007 and HMRC’s published guidance, and are shown as they were found. They have not been signed off by a reviewer. Where the law and HMRC’s naming differ, the page says which is which rather than blending them. For anything that affects a decision, the cited document governs and this site does not.