HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have issued a reminder to employers to increase awareness of the changes to P45 forms as of 6th April 2009.

The new form, which is A4 instead of A5, was introduced in October, and will render the old format invalid in April.

New-look P45s also include date of birth and gender fields, in order to help HMRC match an employee’s information with their records when the forms are processed, which is intended to reduce the number of queries they send to employers when staff leave.

An HMRC spokesperson said: "It's important to remember that employees may not recognise the new forms. All they need is reassurance that the form P45 has changed in appearance and now includes their date of birth and gender."

While the field have changed slightly, HMRC confirmed that the procedures around the information remain unchanged.

There's additional guidance for employers who use HMRC's free Online Return and Forms PAYE system. Users can print parts 1A, 2 and 3 of form P45 onto A4 plain paper, when they have submitted the P45 part 1 (employee leaving details) to HMRC Online. This facility will also be available in some payroll software packages.