This guide walks you through key procedures for handling payroll for the last few pay periods of 2025, including paying in advance, managing Week 53, handling pay on bank holidays, and preparing for the new tax year.
For Revenue, it doesn’t matter when the work was actually done, they only focus on the pay date.
Paying in Advance for Year End 2025 (Weeks 51 & 52)
Option 1: Pay as usual
- Run Weeks 51 & 52 separately
- Send the Payment Submission Report (PSR) on or before the pay day, e.g., on Friday the 19th
- Process bank files as usual on the scheduled date
- Make sure the bank file includes a payment date indicating when you want the funds to be paid to your employees.
Option 2: Pre-Paying Employees for Year End 2025
- Use the **Pre-Pay** feature in BrightPay:
- In the open pay period, click More > Pre-Pay Following Week
- Enter employee payments, additions, deductions
- Return to the current pay period, click Finalise Payslips
- In week 51 you will see the wording "Prepaying payslip. The payment for this week includes…"
- Finalise as usual, and the PSR and payslips will show a combined total covering both weeks.
Handling Employees Paid Across Two Tax Years
- Tax Credits and rate band adjustments cannot be made in advance for 2026
- Here’s an example
- If an employee receives three weeks' pay on December 19, 2025, covering work done in early January 2026:
- Enter the total pay for all three weeks, and report the pay date as December 19, 2025, using only Week 51 & 52 credits.
- The employee will not be paid in Week 1 of 2026, but they will receive two weeks' worth of credits in Week 2 of 2026.
- Another way to handle this would be to process the 2 weeks in 2025 and then run the 3rd week in week 1 of 2026
Important: Only use Week 53 if the pay date is on December 31, 2025
Week 53 in 2025
- Applies only if pay date is December 31st, and the employee is paid on a Wednesday
- Use Week 53 only if paying consistently on Wednesdays
Note: Incorrect use of week 53 causes underpayments; only use if necessary and if unsure, contact support first.
Payments on Bank Holidays
If the normal pay date falls on 1 January 2026, which is a bank holiday, the employer can make the funds available on Wednesday the 31st of December 2025 but must report the pay date as 1 January 2026 and use 2026 Payroll and credits/rate bands. Do not use the 31st of December as this will create a week 53 payment.
Preparing for the 2026 Tax Year
RPNs
- Do not submit payroll with 2026 pay dates until the 2026 RPN is available
- RPNs for 2026 will be released from December 8, 2025
- 2026 BrightPay is available now.
- 2026 RPNs include updates on:
- Budget changes
- LPT updates
- Income adjustments for 2025
Running Payroll in 2026
- Use a 2026 RPN for pay dates in 2026; do not use 2025 RPNs in 2026
- For the first pay run of 2026, request all employee RPNs
- If no RPN is available, operate on an emergency basis
- Payment dates spanning 2025 and 2026 must be submitted in separate files
- Employment IDs will automatically carry over; do not change IDs year to year
Additional Notes
- You cannot download 2025 RPNs after December 31, 2025, but you can send PSRs
- If processing a 2025 payroll late in 2026, use the last 2025 RPN
- Notify Revenue if full LPT cannot be collected; refunds or negative LPT cannot be reported
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