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
-
HMRC has withdrawn Form 652. How should you notify VAT errors going forward?
-
Can paying interest to your company save tax?
You recently borrowed a substantial sum of money from your company rather than take extra salary or dividends. Your bookkeeper says it might be more tax efficient if your company charged you interest. This sounds counter-intuitive but is it correct?
-
Reverse charge and end user rules: opportunity?
If you sell construction services to other builders, you need to consider the domestic reverse charge rules. You must apply these where your customer is an end user. How might this create a cash-flow advantage?