Eight steps to making your Payroll Year End easier

Meeting your obligations as an employer to your staff and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) can often be confusing and time-consuming, preventing you from doing what you do best – running your business.

The payroll year ends on 5th April, and it’s important to get everything ready for that date. The deadline for submitting payroll year end reports to HMRC is 19th April. It’s even easier with the help of our expert payroll team at TaxAssist Accountants. 

To make your Payroll Year End simpler, here is our eight-step guide to putting your payroll in order. 

Step 1 – Employee details

Make sure all your employees’ details are correct and up to date on your payroll software.

Step 2 – Pay

Before the payroll year end, review pay details previously submitted to ensure you have reported your employee’s pay correctly. You will be amazed at how many things can go unnoticed on the payroll. For example, the payroll may have included a bonus for three months instead of one. 

Step 3 – Last pay run

Process your final pay run before 5th April and review your employees’ year-to-date figures.

Step 4 – Process leavers             

Process any leavers before the final submission, to ensure this information is recorded in the correct tax year. 

Step 5 – Week 53

If you run a weekly payroll (including fortnightly or four-weekly) then you may have to complete an extra pay run. We refer to this period as week 53/54/56.  This occurs where employees are paid on 5th April (or 4th April if it’s a leap year).  

Your software should automatically deal with this by revealing an extra pay field. You may need to switch employees to a week one tax code for this extra period. 

Step 6 – Send you final Full Payment Submission

Once you are happy with all the above, you can then submit your final Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC. This tells HMRC to lock down the figures for this tax year for each employee. If you didn’t pay anyone in the last period or you’re using BrightPay, you will need to submit an employer payment summary (EPS) after the final FPS.

Step 7 – P60s

Produce your employees P60 forms. All staff members must receive this form by 31st May, as it is their legal entitlement. This applies to those who are working at the end of the tax year.

Step 8 – New payroll year

After completion of the payroll year end, it’s a good time to look at the year ahead. It’s important to check all current employees have been rolled over into the new tax year.  

If you’re awarding pay increases for the year end, set these up. 

You should also look at adjusting employee’s tax codes for the new tax year. The P9X document from HMRC confirms the tax codes that should be applied from 6th April. 

Key payroll dates 

Don’t forget these important dates: 

5th April – Final day of the payroll year.

6th April – First day of the new payroll year. You must have all new tax codes in place. 

19th April – Final date to submit your final reports to HMRC for the payroll year.

31st May – Must provide employees with P60s by this deadline.

6th July – Deadline to report expenses and benefits to HMRC.

22th July – Deadline to pay class 1A National Insurance Contributions (NIC).

We can help with your payroll

Following the above eight steps should make managing your payroll a little easier, but don’t forget that our dedicated payroll team at TaxAssist Accountants can take this task off your hands as we offer a comprehensive payroll service. Contact us today on 01257 277 999 or use our online contact form. 

Date published 14 Feb 2020 | Last updated 29 Jan 2024

This article is intended to inform rather than advise and is based on legislation and practice at the time. Taxpayer’s circumstances do vary and if you feel that the information provided is beneficial it is important that you contact us before implementation. If you take, or do not take action as a result of reading this article, before receiving our written endorsement, we will accept no responsibility for any financial loss incurred.

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