The tax year runs 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. Every date below falls inside it, with what happens if you miss it.
| Date | What | Who |
|---|---|---|
| On or before each payday | Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC Late: £100–£400 a month by employee count, after one unpenalised lapse a year | Every employer |
| 19th | PAYE and NIC paid by post | Employers |
| 22nd | PAYE and NIC paid electronically Late: 1%–4% of the amount, rising with the number of defaults in the year | Employers |
| 19th | CIS return for the month to the 5th Late: £100 immediately, then £200 at two months | Contractors |
The 19th/22nd split catches people every year. The postal deadline is the 19th and the electronic one is the 22nd — but if the 22nd falls on a weekend or bank holiday, cleared funds must reach HMRC by the last working day before. It does not roll forward.
| Date | What | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Apr 2026 | 2025/26 ends | — |
| 6 Apr 2026 | 2026/27 begins. New rates apply from the first payday on or after this date | Everyone |
| 19 Apr 2026 | Final FPS or EPS for 2025/26. After this the year can only be corrected with an amended submission | Employers |
| 31 May 2026 | P60 to every employee on the payroll at 5 April A statutory duty. Employees need it for mortgages, tax refunds and Self Assessment | Employers |
| 6 Jul 2026 | P11D and P11D(b) for benefits in kind, and a copy to each employee Late: £100 per 50 employees per month | Employers |
| 19 / 22 Jul 2026 | Class 1A NIC on benefits paid — post / electronic | Employers |
| 31 Jul 2026 | Second payment on account for 2025/26 | Self Assessment |
| 5 Oct 2026 | Register for Self Assessment if this is your first year | Newly self-employed |
| 31 Oct 2026 | Paper Self Assessment return for 2025/26 | Self Assessment |
| 30 Dec 2026 | File online to have tax under £3,000 collected through your 2027/28 tax code instead of paying it in one go | Self Assessment |
| 31 Jan 2027 | Online Self Assessment return for 2025/26, balancing payment, and first payment on account for 2026/27 Late filing: £100 at once, even with no tax owed. Then £10 a day from three months, capped at £900 | Self Assessment |
| 5 Apr 2027 | 2026/27 ends. Last day to claim a refund for 2022/23 — the window is four years | Everyone |
31 January is three deadlines wearing one coat. The return for the year just gone, the balancing payment for that year, and the first payment on account for the year you are in. People budget for the first and are caught by the third, which is typically half of the previous year's bill on top.
Some obligations key off a pay date rather than a fixed day. New starters need an FPS on or before their first payday; leavers need a P45 issued without delay. Auto-enrolment re-declaration falls every three years from your own staging date, which no calendar can tell you.
The dates are fixed; the numbers are not. For 2026/27 the personal allowance and the £100,000 taper were both held, while Scottish band ceilings and three student loan thresholds moved, and Plan 5 arrived — the full diff is here.
To see what that does to a wage, the take-home pay calculator applies the current year's rates, and the employer cost calculator covers the other side of the payslip. If a P60 or payslip looks wrong, the payslip checker reconciles it, and the tax code checker explains a code that changed at the year turn.
For the underlying thresholds as machine-readable data, see uk-tax-rates — free JSON, one file per tax year.
Check before you rely on it. These are the statutory dates as published by HMRC and they rarely move, but a deadline falling on a weekend or bank holiday can shift in practice. gov.uk is the authority for your own circumstances, and this is not tax advice.