PAYE93130 - taxpayer end of year: reviewing liability at year end: payments made in tax weeks 53 / 54 / 56


When an employer makes a payment at tax week 53, 54 or 56, they must consider if the total pay is below the Week 52 / Month 12 free pay for the year. If it is no tax needs to be deducted from the payment.

If the total pay is more than the week 52 / month 12 free pay, then tax must be deducted as follows on a non-cumulative basis


Weekly paid – week 53 casesUse the free pay for week 1
Fortnightly paid – week 54 casesUse the free pay for week 2
Four-weekly paid – week 56 casesUse the free pay for week 4

The P14 for each employee should include the total amount of pay received and tax deducted for the full year in each case.

The extra allowances do not apply for Self Assessment or PAYE calculation purposes. For Self Assessment and PAYE calculations the actual pay received in a year should be used in the calculation and the usual allowances and deductions should be given.

The result is that making a Self Assessment or Informal Tax Calculation in these cases will produce an underpayment. When a calculation is made and the result is an underpayment, or the taxpayer is required to complete an SA return, tax must be calculated and charged as normal.

COP will try to clear these cases in the normal way when P14 details are posted to the record. In week 53, 54 and 56 cases, if this is the only reason for the underpayment, the case should clear automatically. If the taxpayer requests an informal calculation in these cases, this should be issued and any underpayment collected in the normal way.