When making a PAYE and Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) payment for the current year you'll need to provide your PAYE Accounts Office reference number. Your Accounts Office reference is 13 characters long, for example 123PA00045678.
If you ever pay early or late or make more than one payment for the same period, you need to add four numbers to the end of your Accounts Office reference to tell HMRC what tax year ending and tax month your payment is for. Your reference should then be 17 characters long with no spaces between.
This checker will make sure you are using a correct reference and will confirm the reference you need to use when making payment, adding the extra four digits to the end of the reference when needed.
Important: Please use the Accounts Office reference in exactly the same format as shown, without any spaces. If you do not, your payment will take longer to update your account.
To avoid allocation problems and late payment penalties always make your electronic payment in good time and ensure it clears into HMRC's bank account on or before the 22nd following the end of the month or quarter to which it relates. When the 22nd falls on a weekend or bank holiday HMRC must have cleared funds by the last bank working day before the 22nd. Bank working days are Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays.
For further information, follow the link to the guide below and go to the section 'Paying by internet, telephone banking or Bacs Direct Credit'
