Some employers pay their employees earlier than usual over the Christmas period. This can be for a number of reasons. For example, during the Christmas period the business may close, meaning employees need to be paid earlier than normal.

There is a useful relaxation of the requirements for reporting PAYE information in real time over the Christmas period.

If an employer does pay early over the Christmas period, they should still report their normal (or contractual) payday as the payment date on their Full Payment Submission (FPS) and ensure that the FPS is submitted on or before this date.

For example, if an employer pays their employees two weeks early on Friday 16 December 2022, when the normal (or contractual) payment date would have been Friday 30 December 2022, then the employer should report the payment date on the FPS as 30 December and ensure the submission is sent to HMRC on or before 30 December 2022.

Doing this will help to protect employees’ eligibility for Universal Credit, as reporting the payday as the accelerated payment date could affect current and future entitlements.