Guide
Payroll year end deadlines: final FPS, P60, P11D and week 53
Updated
Year end is five deadlines in three months, and only the first one moves with your payroll. The rest are fixed dates you can put in the diary today.
The fixed dates after the tax year ends
- Final FPS of the year
- On or before your employees' last payday of the tax year, with 'Yes' in the 'Final submission for year' field if your software has it. Running weekly and monthly payrolls under one PAYE reference? Put the end-of-year information in the last report.
- Corrections to the final FPS
- Wrong payments or deductions found by 19 April: send an additional FPS with corrected year-to-date figures and 0 in 'Pay in this period'. Found after 19 April: send an FPS showing the correct year-to-date amounts. A wrong payment date can be fixed by an additional FPS by 5 April.
- P60 to employees
- By 31 May. Everyone on your payroll on the last day of the tax year (5 April) gets one. If you have to change a P60, issue a replacement marked 'replacement' or a letter confirming the change.
- Expenses and benefits
- By 6 July, report them to HMRC (P11D) and give employees a copy of the information, and report the Class 1A National Insurance you owe on a P11D(b). Employers with fewer than 500 employees use HMRC's PAYE Online service; larger employers use payroll software.
- Class 1A National Insurance
- Payment must be received by 22 July, or 19 July if paying by cheque.
- PAYE Settlement Agreement
- Tax and Class 1B National Insurance under a PSA are due by 22 October, or 19 October by cheque.
The P11D(b) penalty is worth knowing before the date, not after: gov.uk states You'll get a penalty of £100 per 50 employees for each month or part month your P11D(b) is late
, plus penalties and interest for paying late (gov.uk: expenses and benefits).
Week 53
If you pay weekly, fortnightly or every 4 weeks, some years contain one more pay date than the calendar allows for, and you may need to make a week 53 payment in your final FPS. Your payroll software works it out. In the 'Tax week number' field you put:
- 53 if you pay weekly
- 54 if you pay fortnightly
- 56 if you pay every 4 weeks
The consequence lands on the employee, not you: gov.uk says HMRC will send a P800 form to any employees who owe tax following a 'week 53' payment.
Telling weekly-paid staff that in advance costs you nothing and saves a difficult conversation in the summer. Monthly payrolls never have a week 53.
Starting the new tax year
- From 6 April, prepare a payroll record for each employee working for you on that date and enter the correct tax code. HMRC sends a P9T for employees needing a new code and a P9X for general changes to codes ending L, M or N.
- Update your payroll software from 6 April, or earlier if the provider asks, so it uses the current Income Tax, National Insurance and student loan rates and thresholds.
- Include everyone you have paid in the tax year, however little, and anyone who has worked for you since 6 April even if they have already left.
- New starters: use the P45, or the starter checklist if they do not have one, to work out the tax code.
Leavers: put the leaving date on the payroll record when you last pay them and give them a P45. If they are leaving on or after the next 6 April, do not put the leaving date in the same FPS as the final payment; include them in the first FPS of the new tax year with 0 in the pay and year-to-date fields (gov.uk).