It seems crazy but payrollers should already start considering payments and reporting to HMRC over the Christmas period. This must be considered and is especially important in cases where payment date are moved to pay staff earlier or on different dates than usual.
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 their employees earlier than usual over the Christmas period and this has been the norm for many years, and 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.
If you do pay early over the Christmas period, you must 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 as this is not linked to the date you actually make payment to your staff.
For example, if you pay on Friday 17 December 2021 but the normal (or contractual) payment date is Friday 31 December 2021, please report the payment date on the FPS as 31 December and ensure the submission is sent on or before 31 December 2021.
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 easement and it remains that you must report payments on or before the date the employee is paid, that is payday.
