Reporting PAYE information in real time when payments are made early at Christmas
As part of the employer bulletin, HMRC are reminding employers of the permanent easement on reporting PAYE-information in real time which has been in place since 2019.
Some employers pay employees early for the Christmas period. This can be for a number of reasons. For example, during the Christmas period the business may close, meaning workers need to be paid earlier than normal.
Where an employer pays early over the Christmas period, HMRC request that the normal (or contractual) payday is reported as the payment date on the Full Payment Submission (FPS) and that the FPS is submitted on or before this date.
For example, if pay was to be on Friday 17th December 2021 but the normal (or contractual) payment date is Friday 31st December 2021, they ask that the employer should report the payment date on the FPS as 31st December and ensure the submission is sent on or before 31st December 2021.
This helps to protect an employees’ eligibility for Universal Credit, as reporting the payday as the payment date may affect current and future entitlements.
The overriding PAYE reporting obligation for employers is unaffected by this easement and it remains that an employer must report payments on or before the date the employee is paid, that is payday.
PAYadvice.UK 14/10/2021
