There has been a number of discussions in social media about week 53 and what should happen with tax codes. Some saying operate Week 1 / Month 1 and others suggesting even the application of 0T/1.
What is week tax week 53, 54 and 56?
Where an employer pays their employees weekly, 2-Weekly (fortnightly) or 4-Weekly (Lunar), there will be some tax years when there is an extra pay day.
Why, because most years have 365 and leap years have 366 days. this is not a whole number of weeks.
52 x 7 = 364
So some years have an one extra day being 5th April. And leap years have two days being 4th and 5th April. So 2024, being a leap year, has a double hit over a normal year and the 5th also lands on a popular pay day of Friday.
The extra pay day is called
- Week 53 for weekly paid employees
- Week 54 for 2-weekly (fortnightly) paid employees (as tax periods are always in multiples of two)
- Week 56 for 4-weekly (Lunar) paid employees (as tax periods are always in multiples of four).
53 weekly pay days in tax year
Employees paid at weekly intervals that have 53 pay days in a tax year:
- Do not change the tax code unless HMRC has issued a change
- Payroll Software should apply the Week 1 Free Pay tax calculation on a non-cumulative basis
- Week '53' is reported on the FPS and on the P60
27 fortnightly pay days in tax year
Employees paid at regular two-weekly intervals that have 27 pay days in a tax year:
- Do not change the tax code unless HMRC has issued a change
- Payroll Software should apply the Week 2 Free Pay tax calculation on a non-cumulative basis
- Week '54' is reported on the FPS and on the P60
14 lunar pay days in a tax year
Employees paid at regular four-weekly intervals may have 14 pay days in a year:
- Do not change the tax code unless HMRC has issued a change
- Payroll Software should apply the Week 4 Free Pay tax calculation on a non-cumulative basis
- Week '56' is reported on the FPS and on the P60
Does this result in tax underpayments
Simply the answer is yes it can. Although the employer will have calculated the period income tax in accordance with tax calculation rules, the employee may have received too much tax free pay compared with the annual amount allowed.
And when it does HMRC May issue a P800 indicating a tax underpayment as too much pay has been allowed tax free.
The underpayment could then be collected through an adjustment in tax code allowing the tax owed to be collected in smaller, more manageable instalments by deducting slightly more tax from your future income each week in the new tax year.
Has the employer done anything wrong?
Often employees think that their employer has done something which is not the case - they are likely to have operated PAYE in line with HMRC's rules. The underpayment of tax is an unfortunate consequence of having 53 (or 27 or 14) paydays in the one tax year.
Can this impact an employees Universal Credits?
Generally no as the payment is falling on a standard payment date and UC is calculated on a monthly assessment period. so the operation of 53, 54 and 56 in its self is not a cause. The monthly assessment period can start on any day of the month based on the original application date.
However, some will experience 5 weeks of payments falling into a month on occasions, those with two weekly May have 6 weeks pay a little less frequently, and those being paid four weekly may have 8 weeks of pay for a second time in twelve months (there will be at least one 8 week occurrence each year). They may experience a reduction in Universal Credit amounts paid.
PAYadvice.UK 1/4/2024
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