Pay employers' PAYE

Overview

You must pay your PAYE bill to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by the 22nd of the month (or the 19th of the month if paying by cheque through the post).

What you’re paying

Your PAYE bill may include:

• employee Income Tax deductions
• Class 1 and 1B National Insurance
• Student Loan repayments
• Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions

You pay your Class 1A National Insurance bill separately.

PAYE Settlement Agreements are also paid separately.

Ways to pay

Make sure you pay HMRC by the deadline. You may have to pay interest and penalties if your payment is late.

The time you need to allow depends on how you pay.

Same or next day

• online or telephone banking (Faster Payments)
• CHAPS

3 working days

• by debit or credit card online
• Bacs
• at your bank or building society (cash or cheque)
• at the Post Office (debit card, cash or cheque)
• Direct Debit (if you’ve already set one up)
• by cheque through the post

5 working days

• Direct Debit (if you haven’t set up one before)

Payment booklets

You’ll need a payment booklet from HMRC to pay at your bank or building society, at the post office or by post. If you don’t have one, ask HMRC to send it to you.

If you’re no longer using your payment booklet, you can ask HMRC to stop sending it.

HMRC will automatically stop sending your payment booklet if you make 2 or more electronic payments in a year.

Bank details for online or telephone banking, CHAPS, Bacs

You can make a transfer from your bank account by Faster Payments, CHAPS or Bacs.

If your account is overseas

Reference number

You’ll need to use your 13-character Accounts Office reference number as the payment reference. You can find this on the letter HMRC sent you when you first registered as an employer.

How long it takes

Payments made by Faster Payments (online or telephone banking) will usually reach HMRC on the same or next day.

CHAPS payments usually reach HMRC the same working day if you pay within your bank’s processing times.

Bacs payments usually take 3 working days.

Early or late payments

You need to add extra information to your reference number if you pay:

• 14 days or more before the 22nd of the month
• 14 days or more after the 22nd of the month

Add 4 numbers to the end of your 13-character Accounts Office reference to tell HMRC which tax month and year you’re paying for. These extra numbers are made up of:

• 2 digits for the tax year, eg ’14’ for 2013 to 2014, ‘15’ for 2014 to 2015
• 2 digits for the tax month, eg ’01’ for month 1 (6 April to 5 May)

HMRC will assign it to the wrong tax month if the reference is incorrect. You don’t need to add any digits if you pay on time.

Multiple PAYE schemes

To make a single payment via CHAPS for multiple PAYE schemes, contact HMRC.

HMRC’s banking address is:

By debit or credit card online

You can pay online.

You’ll be charged a 1.5% fee if you pay by credit card. The fee isn’t refundable.

Reference number

You’ll need to use your 13-character Accounts Office reference number as the payment reference. You can find this on the letter HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) sent you when you first registered as an employer.

How long it takes

Allow 3 working days for your payment to reach HMRC’s bank account.

Early or late payments

Make sure you enter the correct year and month the payment is for in the separate boxes provided.

Pay for the previous tax year

Select the previous tax year and ‘month 12’ for the last tax year. If you don’t do this, your payment will go to the current tax year instead.

At your bank or building society

Cheques should be made payable to ‘HM Revenue and Customs only’ followed by your 13-character Accounts Office reference number. You can find this on the letter HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) sent you when you first registered as an employer.

You’ll need to pay in using the payslip for the correct period. If you don’t have one of these, ask HMRC to send you a payment booklet.

Allow 3 working days for your payment to reach HMRC’s bank account.

At the Post Office

You can pay by debit card, cash or cheque made payable to ‘Post Office Ltd’. There’s a maximum limit of £10,000.

You’ll need to pay in using the payslip for the correct period. If you don’t have one of these, ask HMRC to send you a payment booklet.

Allow 3 working days for your payment to reach HMRC’s bank account.

Direct Debit

Set up a Direct Debit through your business’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online account to make a single payment. This means you’ll need to set up a payment each time you pay HMRC through Direct Debit.

Reference number

You’ll need your 13-character Accounts Office reference number to make a payment. You can find this on the letter HMRC sent you when you first registered as an employer.

How long it takes

Allow 5 working days to process a Direct Debit the first time you set one up. It should take 3 working days the next time if you’re using the same bank details.

The payments will show on your bank statement as ‘HMRC NDDS’.

Early or late payments

Make sure you also enter the correct year and month the payment is for in the separate boxes provided.

By cheque through the post

You can send a cheque by post to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Make your cheque payable to ‘HM Revenue and Customs only’ followed by your 13-character Accounts Office reference number. You can find this on the letter HMRC sent you when you first registered as an employer.

Your payment may be delayed if you use the wrong reference number.

Send your cheque

You’ll need to include the payslip for the correct period. If you don’t have this, you can do one of the following:

• ask HMRC to send you a payment booklet
• print off a replacement payment slip

Don’t fold the payslip or cheque or fasten them together.

If you’re paying by post, you can include a letter with your payment to request a receipt from HMRC.

How long it takes

You need to allow 3 working days after your payment reaches HMRC for it to clear through their bank account.

Check your payment has been received

Check your HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online account - it should update within 6 working days of making payment.

If you’re paying by post, you can include a letter with your payment to request a receipt from HMRC.

Tell HMRC no payment is due

You must tell HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) if you haven’t paid any employees for at least one tax month.

You can tell HMRC by filling in an Employer Payment Summary (EPS).

You must send it by the 19th of the month following the tax month when no employees were paid.

If you don’t send an EPS, HMRC will send you a notice estimating how much you owe. You may have to pay a penalty.

Telling HMRC in advance

You can tell HMRC that you won’t pay any employees up to 12 months in advance.