Reminder: Good Friday 6th April 2012

The first day of the 2012/2013 tax year (6th April 2012) falls on Good Friday and therefore is a Bank Holiday. You may need to consider this when creating your tax calendars for 2012/13.

If your regular pay day falls on or between 6th April 2012 (Good Friday) and 9th April 2012 (Easter Monday), you may opt to pay your staff early (e.g. 5th April 2012). For PAYE/NIC purposes, you may treat these payments as though they were paid as period 1 for tax year 2012/13. This is despite the actual pay date being in tax-year 2011/12.

This is based on guidance by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) regarding the operation of PAYE and NICs when the pay day falls on a non-banking day (Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday), and payment is made on the last working day before the regular pay day.

These official HMRC instructions can be found in the December 2006 edition of ‘Notes for Payroll Software Developers’ (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/comp/notes-10-32.pdf), section 4.9:

When a regular pay day falls on a non-banking day (Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday) and because of this the payment is made on the last working day before the regular pay day, the payment may be treated for PAYE and Class 1 NIC purposes as having been made on the regular payment day.

For example, pay due on Bank Holiday Friday 6 April 2007 or Bank Holiday Monday 9 April 2007 (tax year 2007/2008) but paid on Thursday 5 April 2007 (tax year 2006/2007) may be treated for PAYE/NIC purposes as being paid on 6 April and 9 April respectively.

Important!  This guidance does not replace or alter the existing guidance in HMRC booklet CWG2 about regular pay days falling in week 53 of the tax year.

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