Week 53 Payments – why does my pay look different?

Here at Liquid Friday, it’s the job of our expert Payroll Team to ensure everything runs super smoothly, ensuring our people are paid efficiently and accurately without having to worry about the complex machinations going on behind the scenes.

However, we just wanted to give you the heads up that 2024 has an extra payroll week, and explain how your payments may be affected, as you may notice that your take-home money, tax code, or tax deducted may look a bit different this week.

Week 53 payments – a tax leap year!

When you are paid weekly, there are usually 52 weeks in the year for payroll, but in certain years there is a Week 53  due to the way the payroll calendar aligns with the fiscal calendar, this year because it’s a leap year.

If you are usually paid weekly, the way the dates fall in 2024 means that in the 2023/24 tax year, you will get 53 pay packets rather than the standard 52 by 5th April 2024. This extra pay packet is known as a “Week 53 Payment”.

The way PAYE works means that you should have automatically received all your tax-free pay for a tax year through payroll by week 52.

However, in order to protect your pay due, HMRC instructs Employers to give you an extra amount of tax-free pay to set against your Week 53 payment, so that your take-home for this period doesn’t vary too much from your normal level. 

What this means for you

For Week 53, we’ll calculate your pay on a Week 1, Month 1 basis, so it’s treated as a Week1 payment and you are given some tax free allowance. 

This could mean that you either underpay or overpay tax. HMRC will contact you directly if this is the case and either change your tax code for the new tax year if it’s an underpayment of tax, or give you a refund if you have overpaid. 

We’re fully committed to transparency and we’ll always keep you fully informed about your pay and deductions. If you have any questions about Week 53 payments, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

P60s

As a reminder, once the 2023-24 tax year has finished we will be closing off your earnings calculations for the year and issuing a P60. This is a form that details how much you have earned with Liquid Friday over the tax year and how much tax you have paid on these earnings.  

All P60s will be issued by May 31st 2024 at the latest.