New guidance for employers on Christmas PAYE reporting

HMRC last year allowed a temporary easement to submitting an FPS (Full Payment Summary) in real time, the decision has been made to make this change permanent.

Many companies pay their employees earlier during the Christmas period due to a variety of different reasons, such as an office shutdown or staff holidays. Under existing rules this would mean that an FPS would need to be submitted on the date that employees get paid.

But following feedback from employers and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), HMRC has received approval to make this easement permanent.

If you do pay early over the Christmas period, please report your normal (or contractual) payday as the payment date on your Full Payment Submission (FPS) and ensure that the FPS is submitted on, or before, this date.

For example: if you pay on Friday 20 December 2019 but the normal/contractual payment date is Tuesday 31 December 2019, please report the payment date on the FPS as 31 December and ensure the submission is sent on or before 31 December.

Doing this will help to protect your 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 announcement and remains that you must report payments on or before the date the employee is paid, i.e. payday