Paying PAYE (Pay As You Earn) by BACS Direct Credit, Internet or Telephone Banking

This page tells you about

Making Payment

All banks and building societies that offer Internet and Telephone banking payments can accept monthly payments of PAYE, including Construction Industry Schemes (CIS) and Student Loan (SL) deductions and Class 1 NICs.

These payment methods enable you to tell your bank to make a payment on a specific date. You therefore know for certain on which day payment will reach us.

It normally takes three bank working days for payment to reach us. Some banks or building societies take longer. You should check with your bank or building society to see how long they take to transfer payment and what their cut off time is for initiating a payment is.

Payment Date

This will vary depending on whether:

Monthly Payments

All employers who pay electronically have until the 22nd of the month to pay. This means that your cleared payment must reach our bank account no later than the 22nd of the month.

Quarterly Payments

If you estimate that your total payment will on average be less than £1,500 per month, you can choose to make quarterly rather than monthly payments.

Employers who pay their quarterly payments electronically have until:

  • 22 July to pay their first quarter ended 5 July
  • 22 October to pay their second quarter ended 5 October
  • 22 January to pay their quarter ended 5 January and
  • 22 April to pay their quarter ended 5 April.

This means that your cleared payment must reach our bank account no later than the 22nd of the specified quarter.

When the 22nd falls on a weekend or Bank Holiday

Where the 22nd falls on a weekend or bank holiday, you must ensure that your payment reaches our bank account no later than the last bank working day before the 22nd. More information on payment dates.

Bank Account Details

When using these electronic systems you will need to provide your bank or building society with our bank account details. These are

Accounts Office Sort Code Account Number Account Name
Cumbernauld 10 51 67 23444401 AO Cumbernauld
Shipley 10 50 41 23456000 AO Shipley

Reference Number

The reference number you use when making a current month payment is your Accounts Office reference.

You need to vary this reference if you are making payment for:

Current month payment

If you are paying your current monthly (or quarterly) payment you will need to provide your Accounts Office reference number. This is printed on the front of the payslip booklet we send you or on the letter we send in place of a booklet. The reference number is in the format 123PA00012345.

Use this reference number to make one combined payment for PAYE (including Construction Industry Schemes (CIS) and Student Loan (SL) deductions) and Class 1 NICs.

We will estimate the split of your payment between PAYE and NIC and correct the allocation later when we process your Employers Annual Return (P35 and P14s).

If you make separate payments of PAYE and NICs you can continue paying as now.

You can use the Reference Checker to check your Accounts Office reference.
It is important that you show the reference number with no gaps between the characters. If you leave gaps it could lead to delays in updating your record.

Future year/month payment

If you wish to pay a future month or year your payment must show the year and month that the payment relates to.

For example, to pay month 02 of the year 2008/09 before 6 June you need to do the following:

  • add 0902 to your Accounts Office reference number to give 123PA000123450902
  • use this 17-character reference number to make a combined PAYE and NICs payment.

If you do not add 0902 and use your 13-character Accounts Office reference your payment will be automatically allocated to month 01 and not 02.

Previous year/month payment

If the payment you are making is:

  • for a previous deduction year, or
  • your regular monthly/quarterly payment but it is more than 2 weeks after the payment date

your Accounts Office reference needs to show the period, i.e. the year and the month, that the payment relates to.

To make a payment for an previous year, for example 2005/2006:

  • add 0613 to your Accounts Office reference to give 123PA000123450613 - Note: always show the month as 13
  • use this 17-character reference number to make a combined PAYE and NICs payment.

To pay an previous month, for example, to make a payment for month 02 in August of 2007/2008:

  • add 0802 to your Accounts Office reference to give 123PA000123450802 - Note: when the month number is a single digit add a zero in front (month 2 is shown as 02)
  • use this 17-character reference number to make combined PAYE and NICs payment.
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