How to pay an employee without their PAYE number

How to pay an employee without their PAYE number

If you have just started to employ people then there can come a time when you need to pay someone without having their PAYE number and the question I always get asked is “can I pay my employee without their PAYE number?” and the simple answer is “yes!” but there are a few stipulations. So in this blog I’m just going to explain what these stipulations are and how you can pay an employee without their PAYE number.

How to pay an employee without a PAYE number

The main thing to remember about this process is that you can only pay an employee without their PAYE number for their first month of working for you. This process is designed to help business owners pay staff who have just started and don’t yet have a PAYE number for, you can do this once but thereafter must ensure you have a copy of their PAYE number to pay your employee.

The method to pay an employee without a PAYE number is pretty simple, you pay the employee via payroll as you normally would but you must also submit the records to HMRC as ‘late payment’ within 30 days. You’ll also need to provide them with a reason for why the pay was late – in this example, the employee’s PAYE number hasn’t arrived yet. As long as they are happy with the reason you’ve paid late then you won’t incur a fine.

It’s as simple as that! So if you’re panicking becuase you need to pay a new employee but their PAYE number hasn’t arrived yet then not to worry, just pay the employee as normal and file it to HMRC as a ‘late payment’ with a good reason and then everything is fine.