Salary advances: change to reporting rules
Where an employer makes part of a salary payment to an employee early, strict rules dictate when this must be included in the payroll real time information reporting. A recent change has relaxed the rules – what do you need to know?

Up until recently, the rules regarding reporting an advance on earnings required employers to submit an additional full payment submission (FPS) to record them on the day the advance was made. As this created an additional administrative burden, both for the employer and HMRC, as well as increasing the likelihood of Universal Credit errors, the requirement has been changed.
For pay periods falling after 6 April 2024, the advance can be reported on the FPS that covers the contractual payment date. This is the case even if the contractual payment date is in a later tax year. The change means the requirement for extra FPS submissions is removed.
It is important to note that this only applies to “payments on account of earnings”, rather than employer loans, e.g. for season tickets – even though these may be repaid via a deduction of salary each pay period.
Related Topics
-
Should you revoke your 20-year-old option?
Your business has let out a building to a tenant and it is now just over 20 years since you opted to tax the property with HMRC. Should you revoke it so that your tenant no longer needs to pay VAT?
-
Chip shop owner fined £40k for hiring illegal worker
A Surrey fish and chip shop owner has been left in shock after being fined £40,000 for allegedly employing someone who didn’t have the right to work in the UK, even though he conducted a right to work check. Where did this employer go wrong and what can you learn from it?
-
Change to IHT on pensions proposals
HMRC has published a policy statement announcing an important change to its plans to include pension savings in an individual's estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes. What’s the full story?