As part of the February Employer Bulletin, the HMRC are reminding employers that the regular electronic payment deadline of 22nd of both February and March 2026 fall on weekends.
The electronic payment deadlines fall on a Sunday on 22 February 2026 and 22 March 2026. To make sure your payment for these months reaches us on time, you need to have funds cleared into HMRC’s account by 20 February 2026 and 20 March 2026, unless you are able to arrange a Faster Payment.
They go on to conform that, ‘it is your responsibility to make sure your payments are made on time’.
If your payments are late, you may be charged a penalty.
They go on to say that you should ‘Check your bank or building society’s single transaction daily value limits and cut-off times well in advance of making your payment.
Make sure you know when to initiate your payment, so it reaches HMRC on time’.
Further information on pay employers PAYE is available.
You must pay your PAYE bill to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by:
- the 22nd of the next tax month if you pay monthly
- the 22nd after the end of the quarter if you pay quarterly – for example, 22nd July for the 6 April to 5 July quarter
If you pay by cheque through the post, it must reach HMRC by the 19th of the month.
Why does it make a difference?
The requirements for payments to HMRC of PAYE relate to the point of receipt and not the point of payment.
Historically payments needed to be sent to HMRC by 19th of the month, but often cheques especially from foreign accounts received by that date took a number of weeks to clear advantaging some employers where funds were retained in their business accounts earning further income for a period of time.
So changes were introduced that if electronic fund transfers such as BACS or Faster Payments and international electronic credits were applied, a concessionary date of 22nd could be applied, however, funds must have been received into HMRC accounts by that date.
For faster payments that is not an issue as payments credit every day including weekends and bank holidays.
However, the BACS service only credits on banking days (Monday to Friday), and these don’t cover weekends or bank holidays. The credit will generally take place on the next banking day following. This can result in late payments to HMRC.
The first two late payments won’t generate a penalty, but they will initiate an interest charge from the 19th of the month. So if a payment was credited on 23rd, an interest charge is applied relating to missing the 19th as a payment date through to the point of the credit being received by HMRC. These added charges will be reflected on your employer PAYE online account. This often causes misbalances on your PAYE account as your payroll reconciliations will not be aware of any penalties and interest. Plus interest will be charged on top of any prior unpaid interest charge.
So as the employer bulletin points out, the 22nd of February and March 2026 falls on a weekend, so employers need to ensure that their payments are received on time as these dates are not a standard banking days.
PAYadvice.UK 15/2/2026