Do I need to change the reference each month when I pay my PAYE?

When paying your PAYE electronically you must quote your Accounts Office reference - that’s the one containing a ‘P’ eg 123PA00045678- but regardless of which month you are paying, you’ll normally be able to use that same reference each time you pay.

So how will HMRC put your payment to the correct month? - That’s simple, they make an assumption but it works only if you pay within a certain window surrounding the normal payment due date. So providing you pay at the ‘right time’ they will get it right and your PAYE record will be kept straight.

So what is the ‘right time’ to pay your PAYE? - By way of example, let’s look at month 1 where the PAYE is due by 22 May. The ‘right time’ is a window running from 6 May to 5 June and if you pay during that time HMRC will automatically assume you are paying month 1 so you do not need to change your standard Accounts Office reference.

What should you do if you pay very early or very late (ie outside of that ‘right time’ window)? - You’ll need to tell HMRC which month you are paying and you do this by adding 4 extra digits to your reference.

What are the 4 extra digits? - Staying with month 1 as our example, if paying outside of the ‘right time’ window you’ll need to add 1301. The ‘13’ tells HMRC that the payment is for 2012/2013 and the ‘01’ tells them that it is for month 1.