The New Starter Checklist is used to gather information about a new employee, ready to set them up on your payroll system. It helps employers operate the correct tax code against an employee’s income, which avoids any under or overpayments.

Employees starting a new job often have a P45 from their previous job so they can give this information to their new employer, but not always. The New Starter Checklist will help you collect the details you need.

If your new employee has a P45 then you won’t normally need to ask them to complete a starter checklist, but it’s good practice to collect this information in case their circumstances have changed since their P45 was issued.
 

You can still take on a new member of staff if they don’t have a P45, they’ll just need to complete the new starter checklist instead. Employers used to give new starters a P46 form to complete if they didn’t have a P45, but this was replaced with the checklist.

Why don’t they have a P45?

There are lots of reasons why a person may not have a P45 to give you when they start, and it’s nothing to worry about:

• They may not have received it from their previous employer
• It could have been mislaid
• They might be starting their first job, perhaps from school or after a long period of unemployment
• The worker may have another job, or they might be a student who is just going to be employed by you during the holidays

The checklist is just between an employer and employee, and is not sent on to HMRC. Employers who need to pay a worker through PAYE will include them on their Full Payment Submission (FPS) the first time the employee is paid.

 
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