This guide provides an overview of the deadlines for paying:
It also tells you about late payment interest and penalties charged by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for paying late and how to avoid these.
If you are looking for general guidance on PAYE and NICs, please see the section 'More useful links' at the end of this page.
HMRC recommends that you make all of your PAYE, NICs and PSA payments electronically. HMRC counts all of the payment methods listed in this guide as electronic, apart from payment by post.
Paying electronically is fast, secure and convenient provided you give us an accurate reference number. It is mandatory for employers with 250 or more employees to make their payments electronically.
It is your responsibility to ensure that payments are made on time, whichever payment method you use. Remember, you may be charged interest and a penalty if your payment is not received by the deadline.
On this page:
Calculate your payments to HMRC by taking these steps:
1) Add together all of the:
2) Subtract any tax refunded to your employees
3) Add deductions from payments made to subcontractors under CIS, as shown on your CIS return (CIS300)
4) Subtract any:
The amounts listed at 1) and 2) above are what you reported on the Full Payment Submissions (FPS) for the tax month (6th of the month to the 5th of the following month) or tax quarter (periods ending 5 July, 5 October, 5 January or 5 April).
The amounts listed at 4) above are what you reported on the Employer Payment Summary (EPS) during the tax month or quarter.
If, at the end of the period the advance covers, the recoverable amounts reported on your EPS are less than the advance received, you must repay the unused amount to HMRC. This amount must be added to your monthly/quarterly payment for the pay period the advance relates to.
If you discover an error in an FPS or EPS and submit an additional FPS or EPS in the week or month that you discover it, you will need to consider the additional FPS or EPS when calculating the monthly or quarterly payment due to HMRC.
If you correct the error the next time you run the payroll the correction will be included in the FPS or EPS for that period and any additional amount due should be included in that month’s or quarter’s payment to HMRC.
Correcting payroll errors - current year
Providing you correct the error before 20 April, you can submit an additional FPS and/or EPS as described above, and include any additional amount due with the month 12 payment.
If you correct the error on or after 20 April, you will not be able to submit an additional FPS. Instead you must submit the corrected details on an Earlier Year Update (EYU). However, you can still submit an EPS for a previous tax year to show the correct total year to date figures for that year.
HMRC strongly recommends that you use an electronic payment method:
You can find out more about these and other payment methods by reading the guide 'How to pay PAYE/Class 1 National Insurance/CIS'.
How to pay PAYE/Class 1 National Insurance/CIS
Payment is due by the 22nd of the month following the end of the tax month or quarter to which it relates and you should make sure you initiate your electronic payment early enough for cleared funds to reach HMRC by the due date.
Where the 22nd falls on a weekend or bank holiday, ensure your payment arrives no later than the last bank working day before the 22nd, unless paying by Faster Payment.
It is important that you check with your bank/building society well in advance of making a payment to check single transaction, daily value limits and cut off times for processing payments to avoid your payment to HMRC being delayed.
Faster Payments is a service that has been introduced by the banking industry that allows payments for sending online or telephone banking payments on the same or next day, providing the value of the payment does not exceed the limit set by your own bank or building society.
Before making a payment using the Faster Payment Service you should contact your bank or building society to confirm the services available to you, any daily value limits and the latest cut off times for sending a payment.
The tables below do not relate to payments made by Faster Payment Service.
More about the Faster Payment Service
If paying by post, your cheque payment must be posted early enough to reach HMRC no later than the 19th of the month following the end of the tax month or quarter to which it relates, so please allow at least three working days. Postal delays sometimes occur, which is why HMRC recommends the security and certainty of electronic payments.
Month or quarter ended |
Month or Quarter number |
HMRC has to receive cleared electronic funds by * |
HMRC has to receive cheques by |
|---|---|---|---|
5 May |
M01 |
22 May |
19 May |
5 Jun |
M02 |
22 Jun |
19 Jun |
5 Jul |
M03 / Q1 |
22 Jul |
19 Jul |
5 Aug |
M04 |
22 Aug |
19 Aug |
5 Sep |
M05 |
22 Sep |
19 Sep |
5 Oct |
M06 / Q2 |
22 Oct |
19 Oct |
5 Nov |
M07 |
22 Nov |
19 Nov |
5 Dec |
M08 |
22 Dec |
19 Dec |
5 Jan |
M09 / Q3 |
22 Jan |
19 Jan |
5 Feb |
M10 |
22 Feb |
19 Feb |
5 Mar |
M11 |
22 Mar |
19 Mar |
5 Apr |
M12 / Q4 |
22 Apr |
19 Apr |
* If the due date falls on a weekend or bank holiday, then your payment must reach HMRC by the previous bank working day (Monday to Friday), unless you make payment using the Faster Payment Service. If your payment arrives late you may be liable for a late payment penalty.
Payment method |
Deadline |
|---|---|
Electronic |
22 July |
By post |
19 July |
Payment method |
Deadline |
|---|---|
Electronic |
22 October |
By post |
19 October |
The tables below provide guidance to help you decide when to initiate your PAYE/NICs/Class 1A NIC/PSA payments in order to avoid missing the deadlines. However, please note:
22nd falls on a |
HMRC must have cleared funds by |
Last day for setting up a new Direct Debit Instruction (DDI) and payment |
Last day for setting up a Direct Debit payment if using an existing DDI |
|---|---|---|---|
Monday |
Monday 22nd |
Monday 15th |
Wednesday 17th |
Tuesday |
Tuesday 22nd |
Tuesday 15th |
Thursday 17th |
Wednesday |
Wednesday 22nd |
Wednesday 15th |
Friday 17th |
Thursday |
Thursday 22nd |
Thursday 15th |
Monday 19th |
Friday |
Friday 22nd |
Sunday 17th |
Tuesday 19th |
Saturday |
Friday 21st |
Sunday 16th |
Tuesday 18th |
Sunday |
Friday 20th |
Sunday 15th |
Tuesday 17th |
22nd falls on a |
HMRC must have cleared funds by |
Last day for sending a payment* |
|---|---|---|
Monday |
Monday 22nd |
Monday 22nd |
Tuesday |
Tuesday 22nd |
Tuesday 22nd |
Wednesday |
Wednesday 22nd |
Wednesday 22nd |
Thursday |
Thursday 22nd |
Thursday 22nd |
Friday |
Friday 22nd |
Friday 22nd |
Saturday |
Saturday 22nd |
Saturday 22nd |
Sunday |
Sunday 22nd |
Sunday 22nd |
Faster Payments is a service that has been introduced by the banking industry for sending online or telephone banking payments on the same or next day, providing the value of the payment does not exceed the limit set by your own bank or building society.
* Before making a payment using Faster Payment Service you should contact your bank or building society to confirm the services available to you, any daily value limits and latest cut off times for sending a payment.
Information about Faster Payment limits on the Payments Council website (Opens new window)
22nd falls on a |
HMRC must have cleared funds by * |
Last day for sending a payment |
|---|---|---|
Monday |
Monday 22nd |
Thursday 18th |
Tuesday |
Tuesday 22nd |
Friday 18th |
Wednesday |
Wednesday 22nd |
Monday 20th |
Thursday |
Thursday 22nd |
Tuesday 20th |
Friday |
Friday 22nd |
Wednesday 20th |
Saturday |
Friday 21st |
Wednesday 19th |
Sunday |
Friday 20th |
Wednesday 18th |
* Assumes payment does not use the Faster Payment Service
22nd falls on a |
HMRC must have cleared funds by |
Last day for sending a payment |
|---|---|---|
Monday |
Monday 22nd |
Monday 22nd |
Tuesday |
Tuesday 22nd |
Tuesday 22nd |
Wednesday |
Wednesday 22nd |
Wednesday 22nd |
Thursday |
Thursday 22nd |
Thursday 22nd |
Friday |
Friday 22nd |
Friday 22nd |
Saturday |
Friday 21st |
Friday 21st |
Sunday |
Friday 20th |
Friday 20th |
If paying by post, your cheque payment must be posted early enough to reach HMRC no later than the 19th of the month. To allow for possible postal delays, for which HMRC are not responsible, please allow at least three working days for the payment to arrive. For interest and penalty purposes your payment is treated as being received on the day your cheque arrives.
Where HMRC receive it on a day that the office is closed the date used will be the day the office was first closed. For example, cheque received on a Monday will be treated as having been received on the Saturday before.
HMRC charges daily interest on late payments of PAYE/NICs by taking the number of days by which a payment is late and applying the relevant late payment interest rate. HMRC make the charge after the end of the tax year once all the end-of-year returns have been received.
Check current and historic HMRC interest rates on late payments
HMRC charge penalties on PAYE payments paid late - PAYE includes Income Tax/NICs, CIS and student loan deductions. This means you may have to pay a late payment penalty if you do not pay the PAYE due each month, quarter or annually, on time and in full.
There will also be late payment penalties for not paying other amounts due annually - including Class 1A NICs and PSA amounts - on time and in full.
Find out more about late payment penalties
Problems paying HMRC: advice for businesses, individuals and tax agents
If you don't let HMRC know you have no PAYE/NICs payment to make HMRC may contact you asking for payment.
If you paid no employees in a tax month then you must send an EPS to HMRC. The deadline for this is the 19th of the month following the end of the tax month for that pay period. Use the 'No payment due as no employees paid in this pay period' tick box on the EPS.
If you run your payroll more or less frequently than monthly then you still only need to submit one EPS in a tax month.
You'll find more about an EPS by following the link at the end of this section.
If you anticipate that you will not be making any payments to employees for a period exceeding a tax month, then you should let HMRC know.
Tell HMRC that you will not be submitting an FPS or making monthly/quarterly payments for a future period by completing the 'Period of inactivity' fields on the EPS.
HMRC can arrange quarterly or even annual payment options, depending on your circumstances.
Smaller employers with estimated monthly payments to make of less than £1,500 can ask HMRC to pay quarterly.
Follow the links below to find out what to do if you think you'll have a problem meeting a payment deadline, or to ask a question about end-of-year PAYE. You'll normally receive a response to an email query within two working days.
End-of-year PAYE queries - send an email
As an employer you are required to keep PAYE records, including records of the payments you have made to HMRC, for the current and previous three tax years. You should therefore be able to reconcile payments you've made using your own records.
If you are having difficulty doing so, you can contact HMRC's Payment enquiry helpline to confirm the amounts, allocation and dates of the last three payments made during the current tax year.
Find contact details for HMRC's Payment enquiry helpline
If you need to reconcile more than the last three payments, you will need to write to HMRC providing:
HMRC will check these details against their records and either confirm that they are correct or advise where any differences exist. You should write to:
HMRC
St Mungo's Road
Cumbernauld
Glasgow
G70 5TR
Alternatively, if you are classed by HMRC as a 'Large Business' and have already had contact with your assigned Customer Relationship Manager, you should approach them with any concerns over reconciling PAYE payments.
