HMRC payroll reporting for Christmas

HMRC’s recent guidance to employers includes a reminder about its concession for real-time reporting requirements of payroll over the Christmas period. The guidance concerns the timing of payroll reporting where employers pay their workers earlier than their normal pay date. HMRC says employers need not submit their full payment submission (FPS) until the date they would have been required to had they paid their workers as usual.

So, if an employer pays its employees on Friday 15 December 2023 instead of their normal contractual payday of Friday 29 December. The employer must show the payment date on its FPS as 29 December 2023 and submit the corresponding FPS to HMRC by no later than that date.

If you pay your employees early for the Christmas period, enter the normal payroll date on your full payment submission instead of the date that you pay them and submit the report no later than the employee’s normal payday.