PAYE payment deadline: the 22nd, the 19th, and when you can pay quarterly

PAYE and National Insurance are due 17 days after the end of the tax period if you pay electronically, and 14 days if you pay by any other means. Because a tax month ends on the 5th, that lands on the 22nd and the 19th. Quarterly payment is available, but only on two conditions.

What is the PAYE payment deadline?

Regulation 69(1) of the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 sets two branches:

• (a) within 17 days after the end of the tax period, where payment is made by an approved method of electronic communications;
• (b) within 14 days after the end of the tax period, in any other case.

Which branch applies turns entirely on how you pay, not on how much you owe or how many people you employ.

Why is the PAYE deadline the 22nd — and is it always?

Because a tax month ends on the 5th. Seventeen days after the 5th is the 22nd; fourteen days after the 5th is the 19th. Those familiar dates are outputs of the rule, not the rule itself.

The distinction matters because the regulation states a day count from a period end, not a calendar date. Working from "period end plus 17" survives period-boundary cases that a hard-coded 22nd does not. The day count itself is an ordinary forward count — "within 17 days after the end of the tax period" — so no inclusive-period adjustment applies. It is a flat 17, and a flat 14.

Can I pay PAYE quarterly?

Yes, on two conditions that must both hold. Regulation 70(1) makes the tax period a tax quarter rather than a tax month where the employer:

1. has reasonable grounds for believing that the average monthly amount will be less than £1,500; and
2. chooses to pay quarterly.

Both limbs are required. Being under the threshold does not put you on quarterly payment automatically — it makes you eligible to elect. And the election alone is not enough if the threshold is not met.

How is the £1,500 average monthly amount calculated?

By the formula in regulation 70(2) to (3): (P + N + L + S) − (SP + CD), averaged over the tax months of the current tax year.

The test is prospective — "reasonable grounds for believing" — so it is a forward judgement about the year, not a look back at last year's figures.

When are quarterly PAYE payments due?

The same day counts, applied to a quarter end instead of a month end: 17 days for electronic payment, 14 days otherwise.

The quarters are fixed to the tax year by regulation 2 — 6 April to 5 July, 6 July to 5 October, 6 October to 5 January, and 6 January to 5 April. So they end on 5 July, 5 October, 5 January and 5 April, and the payment dates follow from there.

This produces four combinations across the whole regime — electronic or not, monthly or quarterly — and every employer operating a PAYE scheme falls into exactly one of them.

What counts as a PAYE payment for these rules?

Paragraph 6(2) of Schedule 56 to the Finance Act 2009 fixes the scope for penalty purposes, and it is wider than income tax alone. It covers:

• PAYE tax
• earnings-related National Insurance contributions
• the apprenticeship levy
• Construction Industry Scheme deductions
• student loan repayments

These count whether the failure is on a single item or on a combined amount. Paying most of the total on time and one component late is still a default.

What is the penalty for paying PAYE late?

An escalating percentage under Schedule 56 to the Finance Act 2009, keyed to how many defaults you have had in the same tax year. The percentage applies to the amount of tax comprised in each default:

Is the first late PAYE payment penalised?

No — but read the mechanism carefully, because it does not work the way people expect.

Paragraph 6(3) provides that a failure which would otherwise be the first default in a tax year "does not count as a default in relation to that year". So the first slip carries no penalty.

It does not reset the count. The disregard removes the charge for that failure; it does not wipe the slate for later ones. And paragraph 6(8)(b) confirms that an earlier default still counts even where it was remedied before the later default arose — paying up quickly does not un-count it.

What happens if I pay PAYE late repeatedly?

The percentage climbs through the bands above as defaults accumulate across the tax year. Because the count runs by tax year, a pattern of small monthly slips can reach the 3% and 4% bands well before the year is out.

Are there further charges for prolonged non-payment?

Yes, two of them, and they stack on top of the escalating percentage:

• Paragraph 7: if any amount is unpaid after 6 months beginning with the penalty date, a further 5% of that amount.
• Paragraph 8: if any amount is unpaid after 12 months, a further 5%.

These are cumulative with the band percentage, not alternatives to it.

Does paying quarterly change the penalty scale?

No. Schedule 56 counts defaults per tax year, regardless of how many tax periods fall within it.

A quarterly payer simply has four opportunities to default in a year rather than twelve — fewer chances to climb the bands, on exactly the same scale. The election changes the tax period, not the penalty structure.

Do PAYE penalties and interest both apply?

Yes, simultaneously. Section 101 of the Finance Act 2009 applies late payment interest to any amount payable to HMRC under or by virtue of an enactment; section 101(2) excludes corporation tax and petroleum revenue tax, and PAYE is not excluded.

Under section 101(4), interest runs from the date the amount becomes due and payable — this deadline. The Schedule 56 penalty is a sanction keyed to default count; the interest runs separately and continuously on whatever is outstanding. Both are live at once.

No interest rate figure appears on this page: the late payment interest rate is set under delegated powers and moves, so the mechanism is stated and the percentage is not.

What is not covered here?

The narrow carve-out for retrospective employment income under regulations 69(4) and 70(1A). It uses a different definition of "tax period", and the quarterly election never applies to it. It is named here rather than quietly folded into the general rule, but its mechanics are not described on this page.

How do I pay PAYE to HMRC?

Through HMRC's payment channels for the relevant tax period, quoting the correct accounting period reference. The single most consequential choice is the payment method itself — it is what decides whether you have 17 days or 14, and it is a three-day difference every single period.

Related

• PAYE Real Time Information: Full Payment Submission — the reporting duty, due on or before payday
• VAT return — the other rolling HMRC payment obligation
• Right to work check — the employment duty that starts before your first hire
• Employers' liability compulsory insurance — triggered the moment you become an employer
• Pillar hub: UK payroll and employer deadlines (placeholder)
• Companies House deadline checker — your company filing deadlines alongside the payroll ones