Every UK employer must issue a P60 to each employee still on the payroll on 5 April, and the deadline to do so is 31 May, a statutory date with no grace period [25]. Before that, the final Full Payment Submission of the year has to carry a marker telling HMRC it is the last report for the tax year, or the scheme is left looking as though returns are still outstanding [22].
Payroll year end is not a single task but a short sequence that closes one tax year and opens the next. The tax year ends on 5 April and the new one begins on 6 April, and in the weeks around that boundary an employer has to send a final submission, hand out P60s, and reset its records for the year ahead [21].
This guide walks through that sequence in order: the final FPS and when a final EPS replaces it, the week 53 quirk, the P60 obligation and its deadline, and the steps that ready a scheme for the new tax year. It is written for employers running their own payroll and for the accountants closing the year on their clients' behalf.
Key takeaways
- The tax year ends on 5 April and the final payroll report must be marked as the final submission for the year.
- If nobody was paid in the final period, or the final FPS was sent without the marker, a final EPS carries the year-end indicator instead.
- Weekly, fortnightly and four-weekly payrolls may need a week 53 payment in the final FPS.
- P60s must reach every employee employed on 5 April by 31 May, and digital delivery is permitted.
- Preparing for the new year means applying the P9X, carrying codes forward, and removing week 1 or month 1 markers.
- Payroll software works out week 53 and the year-end markers automatically, which is why recognised software matters most at year end.
The year end sequence at a glance
Year end has a rhythm, and missing one step tends to create work at the next. The table below sets out the sequence and the dates that anchor it.
| Step | Action | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Send the final FPS (or a final EPS) for the tax year | On or before the last payday, tax year ends 5 April [[22]](https://www.gov.uk/payroll-annual-reporting/send-your-final-payroll-report) |
| 2 | Pay HMRC the final month's liability | By 22 April for electronic payment [[9]](https://www.gov.uk/running-payroll/paying-hmrc) |
| 3 | Issue a P60 to every employee employed on 5 April | By 31 May [[25]](https://www.gov.uk/payroll-annual-reporting/give-employees-p60-form) |
| 4 | Update payroll records and software for the new year | Before the first payday from 6 April [[23]](https://www.gov.uk/payroll-annual-reporting/update-employee-records) |
| 5 | Report expenses and benefits if any were provided | P11D deadline is 6 July [[21]](https://www.gov.uk/payroll-annual-reporting) |
An employer that treats these as five distinct jobs, rather than one vague "year end", tends to clear them cleanly. A business running payroll on an HMRC-recognised payroll platform has the first and fourth steps handled inside the software, leaving only the P60 distribution and any benefits reporting as manual work.
Step one, the final full payment submission
The everyday reporting mechanism does not change at year end. An employer still sends a Full Payment Submission on or before each payday, listing pay, tax, National Insurance and other deductions for every employee [13]. What changes is that the last FPS of the tax year must indicate that it is the final submission for the year [22].
That marker is how HMRC knows to stop expecting monthly returns for the year just ended. Without it, the scheme can appear to have an outstanding return, which risks a specified charge or a compliance query [7]. Payroll software provides the field, and the employer simply confirms it on the last payrun before 5 April.
When a final EPS is needed instead
Sometimes the year-end indicator cannot travel on the FPS, and a final Employer Payment Summary carries it instead [22]. The situations below all call for a final EPS.
| Situation | Why a final EPS is used |
|---|---|
| The "final submission for year" box was missed on the last FPS | The EPS supplies the missing year-end marker [[22]](https://www.gov.uk/payroll-annual-reporting/send-your-final-payroll-report) |
| The software has no "final submission for year" field on the FPS | The EPS carries the indicator instead [[22]](https://www.gov.uk/payroll-annual-reporting/send-your-final-payroll-report) |
| Nobody was paid in the final pay period of the tax year | An EPS reports the nil period and closes the year [[8]](https://www.gov.uk/running-payroll/reporting-to-hmrc-eps) |
| The final FPS was sent early and no one was paid for one or more full tax months | The EPS confirms the inactive months and the year-end [[22]](https://www.gov.uk/payroll-annual-reporting/send-your-final-payroll-report) |
An EPS is also the route for reclaiming statutory payments and for claiming the Employment Allowance, and at year end these reductions should be squared off so the final balance owed to HMRC is correct [8]. The employer can confirm the closing figure in its HMRC PAYE Online account once the final submissions have been processed. For a payroll bureau managing many schemes, the discipline of checking which clients need an FPS marker and which need a final EPS is one of the defining tasks of the April run.
The week 53 payment
A quirk of the calendar catches weekly, fortnightly and four-weekly payrolls. When a payday falls on 5 April, or on 4 April in a leap year, the year contains an extra pay period, and the final FPS needs a week 53 payment [22]. This does not happen for monthly payrolls.
Payroll software works out the week 53 calculation, applying the personal allowance on a week 1 basis for that final period so the employee is not overtaxed in the moment [22]. Because that extra period gives the employee more allowance than the annual figure strictly allows, HMRC may later issue a P800 to any employee who then owes a small amount of tax [22]. An employer does not need to correct week 53 manually, but it helps to understand why an employee might receive an HMRC calculation afterwards. Businesses embedding payroll through a UK payroll engine get the week 53 logic applied automatically rather than as a manual adjustment.
Step two, issuing P60s
The P60 is the end-of-year certificate that summarises an employee's pay, tax, National Insurance and statutory payments for the whole tax year [25]. Employees rely on it for self-assessment returns, mortgage applications and proof of income, so accuracy has real downstream consequences.
Who gets one and by when
An employer must give a P60 to every employee who was on the payroll and working on the last day of the tax year, 5 April, and the deadline to provide it is 31 May [25]. There is no exception for employees on long-term sick leave or family leave, provided they were still employed on 5 April. An employee who left before 5 April does not get a P60, because their P45 already served that purpose.
The certificate can be issued on paper or digitally, and a PDF is acceptable, which lets an employer distribute P60s by secure email or through a payroll portal rather than printing them [25]. An employer closing the year should also read the wider end-of-year P60 checklist to confirm nothing is missed before distribution.
What the figures on a P60 reflect
The P60 must show the final tax code in use at year end, not any mid-year code, and it separates pay and tax from previous employments from the figures for the current employment [25]. It also carries the National Insurance earnings bands against the 2026-27 thresholds, and any student loan or postgraduate loan deducted through the year, shown in whole pounds [27]. The table below sets the key thresholds the certificate reports against.
| Threshold | Annual figure |
|---|---|
| Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) | £6,708 [[27]](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cwg2-further-guide-to-paye-and-national-insurance-contributions/2026-to-2027-employer-further-guide-to-paye-and-national-insurance-contributions) |
| Primary Threshold (PT) | £12,570 [[27]](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cwg2-further-guide-to-paye-and-national-insurance-contributions/2026-to-2027-employer-further-guide-to-paye-and-national-insurance-contributions) |
| Upper Earnings Limit (UEL) | £50,270 [[27]](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cwg2-further-guide-to-paye-and-national-insurance-contributions/2026-to-2027-employer-further-guide-to-paye-and-national-insurance-contributions) |
Step three, preparing for the new tax year
Closing the old year is only half the job. Before the first payday on or after 6 April, an employer resets its records so the new year runs on the correct codes [23].
Applying the P9X and carrying codes forward
HMRC publishes the P9X each year to tell employers which tax codes to change and which to carry forward [11]. For the 2026-27 tax year the standard code is 1257L, reflecting the £12,570 personal allowance [11]. Where an employee is not receiving a new code, the employer copies the authorised code from the previous year's record and continues to use it [23].
One detail is easy to miss and important to get right. When carrying a code forward, the employer must not copy over any week 1 or month 1 marking, because those emergency bases do not survive into the new year [23]. A code carried forward with a stale week 1 marker taxes the employee incorrectly from the first payrun.
Updating payroll software
The employer also has to make sure its payroll software is updated for the new tax year before running the first payrun, so the new thresholds, rates and codes apply [24]. Cloud-based recognised software applies these updates centrally, which removes a manual step and the risk of running an April payrun on last year's figures [24]. This is a practical argument for choosing software where compliance updates arrive automatically rather than as a download an employer has to remember to install.
Reporting expenses and benefits
If the employer provided taxable expenses or benefits during the year, these are reported separately after the payroll year closes, with the P11D process running to a 6 July deadline [21]. An employer that payrolls benefits through the year still has to account for the Class 1A National Insurance due, so benefits reporting sits alongside the core year-end sequence rather than inside it.
Correcting a year-end mistake
Mistakes at year end are fixable, and the correction is always made through payroll software rather than by editing anything in the HMRC account directly [26]. If an employer finds an error in the final FPS or EPS after sending it, it sends an amended or additional submission to put the figures right [26]. Because Real Time Information shows HMRC each submission as it lands, a prompt correction is far cleaner than leaving an error to surface later, and it protects employees whose benefit entitlements depend on accurate payroll data [7].
Conclusion
Payroll year end rewards employers who treat it as an ordered sequence rather than a scramble in late April. The final submission has to carry the year-end marker, whether on the FPS or a final EPS, the week 53 case has to be handled for non-monthly payrolls, P60s have to reach every relevant employee by 31 May, and the records have to be reset with fresh codes and updated software before the first payrun of the new year.
None of these steps is difficult in isolation, but each one has a deadline and a consequence for missing it, and the P60 date in particular allows no grace period. The employer that closes the year on recognised software, checks the year-end indicator, distributes P60s early, and strips week 1 and month 1 markers before carrying codes forward, starts the new tax year clean and spends the following April repeating a process it already trusts.
Frequently asked questions
What is the deadline for issuing P60s to employees?
Every employer must give a P60 to each employee who was on the payroll and working on 5 April, and the deadline to provide it is 31 May [25]. This is a statutory obligation with no grace period, and it applies even to employees on long-term sick or family leave, provided they were still employed on the last day of the tax year. The P60 can be issued digitally, so a PDF sent securely satisfies the requirement.
How does HMRC know a payroll report is the final one for the year?
The last Full Payment Submission of the tax year has to be marked as the final submission for the year, which is a field in the payroll software [22]. If that marker is missed, or the software has no such field, or nobody was paid in the final period, the employer sends a final Employer Payment Summary carrying the year-end indicator instead [8]. Without the marker, HMRC may treat the scheme as having an outstanding return.
What is a week 53 payment and do I need to make one?
A week 53 payment arises on weekly, fortnightly or four-weekly payrolls when an extra pay period falls at the end of the tax year, typically when a payday lands on 5 April [22]. Monthly payrolls never have a week 53. Payroll software calculates it automatically, applying the allowance on a week 1 basis, and HMRC may afterwards issue a P800 to any employee who owes a small amount of tax as a result [22].
Can I reuse last year's tax codes for the new tax year?
An employer can carry forward an authorised tax code where HMRC has not issued a new one, copying it from the previous year's record [23]. The P9X sets out which codes change and which carry forward, and for 2026-27 the standard code is 1257L [11]. The one rule that must not be broken is removing any week 1 or month 1 marker before carrying a code forward, because those emergency bases do not continue into the new year [23].
