How to Get Your Payroll Ready for Year-End: A Guide for UK Productions

With the UK tax year ending on April 5, now is the time to get your final production payroll in order so that you can ensure your records are up to date and start the new tax year off on the right foot.

To help, we’ve put together a checklist of key steps production teams can take to ensure that their year-end payroll runs as smoothly as possible.

Confirm any leavers

Before the end of the tax year, it’s important to let your payroll provider know of any PAYE employees who have left your production (either since the start of production or the start of the tax year, whichever is earliest). For each leaver, you'll need to provide:

• Their full name; and
• Their last day of work  

Your payroll provider will submit this information to HMRC, which will update its employment records. Failure to do so may result in HMRC incorrectly thinking that an individual has two jobs (and taxing them accordingly).

Your payroll provider will also use this information to provide:

• P60s to all active employees by May 31, 2025; and
• P45s to any leavers which they weren’t already aware of.

Confirm any new starters

It’s also important to inform your payroll provider of all new starters who will be paid before the end of the tax year (including their tax codes) so that they can be included in the final Full Payment Submission (FPS) sent to HMRC on your behalf.

Check (and double check) your final payroll

When submitting your final FPS to HMRC, your payroll provider will need to confirm that this is your final payroll of the tax year.

While it is possible to make changes to a previous tax year’s payroll (e.g., if you need to correct an allowance), this can be cumbersome, so be sure to check (and double check) your final payroll carefully before submitting it to your payroll provider. This will also help you to ensure that each individual's P60 is accurate.

Note that your final payroll date will differ depending on whether your pay cycle is weekly or monthly, so speak to your payroll provider to confirm when your final payroll date will be.

Factor rate changes into your budgets

The start of each tax year is generally when any new tax rates take effect. This year, there is an increase in the employers’ National Insurance (NI) rate from 13.8% to 15%.

In addition, the threshold at which employers start paying NI on each employee’s earning will be reduced from £9,100 annually to £5,000 annually, leading to a significant increase in NIC bills for employers.

Your payroll provider should update their payroll system automatically to reflect these new rates, but it’s important to take note of them and how they will impact your payroll budget (see here for further details).

The following statutory rates will also increase from April 6:

• Statutory Sick Pay will increase from £116.75 a week to £118.75 a week.
• Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance, Paternity Pay, Adoption Pay, Shared Parental Leave Pay and Parental Bereavement Pay will increase from £184.03 a week to £187.18 a week.

The lower earnings limit (i.e., how much an employee needs to earn each week to qualify for these payments, other than the Maternity Allowance) will also increase from £123 a week to £125. The lower earnings limit for the Maternity Allowance will remain £30 a week.

Finally, the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage will also increase from the slightly earlier date of April 1 (see here for more details).

Apply for the Employment Allowance

In light of the increase in employers’ NICs, the government has increased the employment allowance from £5,000 to £10,500 to offer some reprieve for smaller businesses. This means that eligible employers will only start paying employer NICs when each employee’s earnings have passed the £10,500 threshold.

It’s important to note that employers must apply for this allowance for each tax year (it isn’t applied automatically). Once your claim has been submitted, you can immediately start using your allowance.

Speak to your payroll provider about how to apply for the allowance and get an idea of the timing so that you can factor this into your cash flow.

Confirm any tax code changes

At the start of the new tax year, HMRC will issue P9 tax notices informing employers about any changes to their employees’ tax codes. Most productions will opt to have these notices sent directly to their payroll provider. If not, you'll receive these in the post and will need to pass them on to your payroll provider so that they can make sure each employee’s tax code is up to date.

Simplify payroll compliance with Entertainment Partners

Staying on top of your compliance requirements can be daunting, but an experienced payroll provider will help you to mitigate your risk and give you peace of mind.

At Entertainment Partners, our UK-based team has deep expertise in local payroll law and can help your production to navigate the legislative requirements and compliance challenges with confidence. Get in touch to find out more.

This article contains general information on a subject that may be of interest to you. Nothing in this article should be considered payroll, tax or legal advice. You should consult with your own advisors regarding the applicability of this information to your specific circumstances.