Bringing Forward Paydays at Christmas and New Year

We update our article from previous years to reflect the Festive Season 2025/26.

 It is not too early for you and your clients to consider payrolls in the coming weeks and months, especially December and January when there are the following Bank Holidays:

• Christmas Day Thursday (25 December 2025)
• Boxing Day is Friday (26 December 2025)
• New Year’s day Thursday (01 January 2026)

See the 2025/26 Bacs processing calendar and note that 29 December 2025 is a non-banking day in Northern Ireland.  Whilst 02 January 2026 is a regional holiday in Scotland, it is not a Bank Holiday.

Over the Festive Season, employers may bring forward their usual payday.  For example, a monthly payroll that pays on the 25^th would have to change anyway in December, as this is a non-banking day.  However, rather than bringing it forward to the 24^th, an employer may make the decision to bring this forward to, say, the Friday before the last weekend before Christmas Day.

Bringing forward a payday at Christmas as RTI reporting implications that are important to get right.  We always need to remember that RTI filing interacts with the Department for Work and Pensions and Universal Credit.

For Bookkeepers

It is sensible to approach your clients and ask for their payment plans over the Festive Season.  Bookkeepers will need this for planning purposes and, also, it may serve as a prompt for employers to consider this.

There are two considerations for employers: 

1.     The date the employee is paid (payday); and

2.     The date the information must be reported to HMRC (via the Full Payment Submission (FPS) filing date) 

The payday is non-negotiable and is the date that is agreed between employee and employer.

For payroll reporting, there is the overriding consideration that the Full Payment Submission (FPS) must be submitted on or before payday.  Within the FPS is a field ‘payment date’ used to report the date the employee was contractually entitled to be paid.  When a payday is bought forward because payment cannot be made on the contractual payday, common at the Festive Season, this means different considerations, the same as when payment cannot be made because the contractual payday falls on a weekend. 

Assume a monthly payroll that pays on the 30^th of the month: 

• In November 2025, the 30^th is a Sunday and this is not a banking day.  Employers will often bring the payday forward to the banking day before, i.e. the 28^th.  So:
• The employee must be paid on the 28^th and the FPS must be submitted to HMRC on or before the 28^th, however,
• The payment date field within the FPS must contain the date 30 November 2025, as this is the date that the employee was contractually entitled to be paid

Payday and the payment date are not the same

This does change when payday is bought forward because of Christmas! HMRC have a permanent easement which is explained in HMRC’s October 2023 Employer Bulletin and is a message we expect to be repeated in upcoming Bulletins and Agent Updates.  There are two operational implications when bringing forward paydays because of Christmas:

1.     The payment date on the FPS is not the date that the employee is paid but is the date the employee is contractually entitled to be paid,

2.     The FPS can be filed on or before payday or on or before the payment date

So, as an example, an employer pays on the 25^th of the month, however, in December 2025 brings this forward to Friday the 19^th:

• Whilst the payday is 19 December 2025, the payment date declared within the FPS remains as 25 December
• The FPS can be submitted to HMRC on or before payday (the 19^th) or on or before the payment date (the 25^th)