UK employer compliance calendar, 2026-27 tax year

The four rules that repeat all year, then the dates month by month from 22 October 2026 to May 2027, then the notes for an employer based outside the UK.

Before the months: the four rules that repeat all year

1. Every payday: send the FPS. Send your Full Payment Submission "on or before your employees' payday", even if you pay HMRC quarterly.

2. The 19th: the EPS, if you need one. You send an Employer Payment Summary by the 19th of the following tax month to reclaim statutory pay or claim a reduction, or instead of an FPS if you paid nobody that tax month.

3. The 22nd: pay HMRC. What you owe for a tax month is due by the 22nd of the next tax month, or the 19th if you pay by cheque through the post. If you usually pay less than £1,500 a month, you may be able to pay quarterly, by the 22nd after each quarter ends.

4. The 22nd again: pension contributions. Contributions you take from pay must reach the pension scheme by the 22nd of the next month (19th by cheque).

Tax months run from the 6th of one month to the 5th of the next. The 2026-27 rates and thresholds apply from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027.

Month by month

"Tax month 1" is 6 April to 5 May 2026, and so on to tax month 12, 6 March to 5 April 2027.

The table starts at 22 October 2026 and runs to the end of May 2027.

Once a year, or on your own dates

• Employment Allowance. If you're eligible, claim it on an EPS, "once each tax year".
• Pension declaration of compliance. Within five months of your duties start date, the day your first member of staff started.
• Pension re-enrolment, every three years. "Every three years you must put certain staff who have left your pension scheme back into it." You also complete a re-declaration of compliance, whether or not anyone is put back in. Your date runs from your own duties start date, so it isn't in the table.
• New employer: 120 days. "HMRC will close your PAYE scheme if you're a new employer and you do not send a report to or pay HMRC in 120 days."
• Records: three years. Keep payroll records for 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

Overseas employer notes

These apply to an employer based outside the UK with someone working here. Which HMRC scheme fits depends on where the employer is and who owes the National Insurance.

We'll ask HMRC for the scheme that fits your facts, and once they have the full facts they may suggest a different one.

If the employee holds a DPNI. HMRC's DPNI guidance includes employees of an overseas employer that has no UK address it pays wages from. The scheme is the employee's. It reports through RTI like any payroll, but HMRC are paid every quarter, within 14 days after each tax quarter ends, and the employee makes that payment. The tax quarters end on 5 July, 5 October, 5 January and 5 April. So the 19th and 22nd monthly rows above are not the DPNI's payment dates.

If the employee holds a DCNI. A DCNI collects only employee National Insurance, every quarter, and any income tax due goes through Self Assessment. No saved HMRC page gives a payment day for it, so none is given here.

If the employer is in the EU and UK National Insurance is due. When someone works in the UK for an employer based in the EU and UK National Insurance is due, it is due on both sides, the employee's and the employer's, so the scheme is an NI-only scheme in the employer's name and not a DPNI or DCNI. An NI-only scheme is the employer's own payroll scheme, so the monthly table above applies to it: an FPS every payday, with tax code NT and zero taxable pay, and payment by the 22nd. HMRC don't let anyone register a scheme more than two months before they start paying people.

Other European employers. An employer based in the EU, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein can owe it as well, when the employee works in the UK and UK National Insurance is due. Which scheme then fits is a question for the facts, and this calendar does not answer it.

The employee's income tax beside an NI-only scheme. HMRC's manual says it "will be paid through Self-Assessment or, if preferred, a DPGEN (tax only) scheme". For Self Assessment: a paper return must reach HMRC by 31 October 2026, and the online return and the tax are due by 31 January 2027.

From the first day, whichever scheme. You must have employers' liability insurance from the day you become an employer, unless the only person you employ is based outside England, Scotland and Wales, and you can be fined £2,500 for every day you're not properly insured. The workplace pension (auto-enrolment) duties also start on the employee's start date, not when HMRC open the scheme.

If pay starts before the scheme exists. If pay starts before the scheme is in place, payroll still runs every payday and is reported to HMRC late once the scheme exists.

Benefits for globally mobile employees. GOV.UK says employers can choose to exclude globally mobile employees from mandatory payrolling from 6 April 2027, "through a new service that will be available from November 2026", and keep using P11D and P11D(b) for them.

Read next

• PAYE penalty calculator, an estimate for a late FPS or a late payment to HMRC.
• First UK hire: a founder's payroll checklist, the order to do things in for a first employee.
• UK payroll year-end, the final FPS, P60s and P11Ds.
• RTI, FPS and EPS explained, what each submission is for.

General information about UK payroll deadlines, not tax advice. It reflects GOV.UK, HMRC and The Pensions Regulator guidance as saved on 20 October 2026, which can change.