Table 1 shows the staging dates for employers with 250 or more persons in their PAYE scheme.
Table 2 shows the proposed staging dates for employers who had fewer than 250 persons in their PAYE scheme on 1 April 2012, and for new employers who set up from 1 April 2012.
To look up your staging date in table 1 or 2, you'll need to know the size of your PAYE scheme. If you have more than one PAYE scheme, your staging date will be determined by the largest. However, this is not the case if you employed fewer than 50 people (full-time equivalent) immediately before 1 April 2012 and are part of a PAYE scheme that has more than 50 people in it. See the Important note below for more details.
You may also choose to bring your staging date forward, though you cannot choose a later date.
Find out more about how to bring your staging date forward
Important note
Small businesses that are part of a larger PAYE scheme
The DWP is currently consulting on staging dates for employers who employed fewer than 50 people (full-time equivalent*) on 1 April 2012 and are part of a PAYE scheme that has more than 50 people in it. The proposal is that the staging date for your business will be later than the one indicated by the size of your PAYE scheme.
To find out the proposed staging date for your business:
- Look up the staging date that would apply based on your PAYE scheme in the tables below:
- If there are 250 or more persons in the PAYE scheme, use table 1.
- If there are fewer than 250 persons in the PAYE scheme, use table 2.
- Go to table 3 and, within the ranges listed, find the staging date applicable to your PAYE scheme as identified in step 1. This will give you the staging date for your business.
You should check your date again once the consultation is complete and the dates have been finalised by Parliament. Sign up to news-by-email so we can tell you when this happens.
*For the purpose of the definition of 'small employer', the number of FTE workers is calculated as TH/37.5, where TH is the total number of hours per week for which all the workers are contracted to work.
- Table 1: List of staging dates for PAYE schemes with 250 or more persons
- Table 2: List of staging dates for PAYE schemes with fewer than 250 persons
- Table 3: Small businesses that are part of a larger PAYE scheme
Table 1: List of staging dates for PAYE schemes with 250 or more persons
| PAYE scheme size | Staging date |
|---|---|
| 120,000 or more | 1 October 2012 |
| 50,000-119,999 | 1 November 2012 |
| 30,000-49,999 | 1 January 2013 |
| 20,000-29,999 | 1 February 2013 |
| 10,000-19,999 | 1 March 2013 |
| 6,000-9,999 | 1 April 2013 |
| 4,100-5,999 | 1 May 2013 |
| 4,000-4,099 | 1 June 2013 |
| 3,000-3,999 | 1 July 2013 |
| 2,000-2,999 | 1 August 2013 |
| 1,250-1,999 | 1 September 2013 |
| 800-1,249 | 1 October 2013 |
| 500-799 | 1 November 2013 |
| 350-499 | 1 January 2014 |
| 250-349 | 1 February 2014 |
Table 2: List of staging dates for PAYE schemes with fewer than 250 persons
The dates in this table are indicative and under consultation. You should therefore check your date again once the consultation is complete and the dates have been finalised by Parliament. Sign up to news-by-email so we can tell you when this happens.
| Employer by PAYE scheme size or other description | Staging date |
|---|---|
| 160-249 | 1 April 2014 |
| 90-159 | 1 May 2014 |
| 62-89 | 1 July 2014 |
| 61 | 1 August 2014 |
| 60 | 1 October 2014 |
| 59 | 1 November 2014 |
| 58 | 1 January 2015 |
| 54-57 | 1 March 2015 |
| 50-53 | 1 April 2015 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 92, A1-A9, B1-B9, AA-AZ, BA-BW, M1-M9, MA-MZ, Z1-Z9, ZA-ZZ 0A-0Z or 2A-2Z | 1 June 2015 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference number BX | 1 July 2015 |
| 40-49 | 1 August 2015 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference number BY | 1 September 2015 |
| 30-39 | 1 October 2015 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference number BZ | 1 November 2015 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 02-04, C1-C9, D1-D9, CA-CZ or DA-DZ | 1 January 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 00 05-07, E1-E9 or EA-EZ | 1 February 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 01 08-11, F1-F9, G1-G9, FA-FZ or GA-GZ | 1 March 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 12-16, 3A-3Z, H1-H9 or HA-HZ | 1 April 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers I1-I9 or IA-IZ | 1 May 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 17-22, 4A-4Z, J1-J9 or JA-JZ | 1 June 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 23-29, 5A-5Z, K1-K9 or KA-KZ | 1 July 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 30-37, 6A-6Z, L1-L9 or LA-LZ | 1 August 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers N1-N9 or NA-NZ | 1 September 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 38-46, 7A-7Z, O1-O9 or OA-OZ | 1 October 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 47-57, 8A-8Z, Q1-Q9, R1-R9, S1-S9, T1-T9, QA-QZ, RA-RZ, SA-SZ or TA-TZ | 1 November 2016 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 58-69, 9A-9Z, U1-U9, V1-V9, W1-W9, UA-UZ, VA-VZ or WA-WZ | 1 January 2017 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 70-83, X1-X9, Y1-Y9, XA-XZ or YA-YZ | 1 February 2017 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers P1-P9 or PA-PZ | 1 March 2017 |
| Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE reference numbers 84-91, 93-99 | 1 April 2017 |
| Fewer than 30 unless otherwise described | 1 April 2017 |
| Employer who does not have a PAYE scheme | 1 April 2017 |
| New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013) | 1 May 2017 |
| New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014) | 1 July 2017 |
| New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015) | 1 August 2017 |
| New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 April 2015 and 31 December 2015) | 1 October 2017 |
| New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 January 2016 and 30 September 2016) | 1 November 2017 |
| New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 October 2016 and 30 June 2017) | 1 January 2018 |
| New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 July 2017 and 30 September 2017) | 1 February 2018 |
Table 3: Small businesses that are part of a larger PAYE scheme
| Staging date by PAYE scheme | Your staging date | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 October 2012 to 1 November 2012 | 1 August 2015 | |
| 1 January 2013 to 1 February 2013 | 1 October 2015 | |
| 1 March 2013 to 1 April 2013 | 1 January 2016 | |
| 1 May 2013 to 1 June 2013 | 1 February 2016 | |
| 1 July 2013 to 1 August 2013 | 1 March 2016 | |
| 1 September 2013 to 1 October 2013 | 1 April 2016 | |
| 1 November 2013 to 1 January 2014 | 1 May 2016 | |
| 1 February 2014 to 1 April 2014 | 1 July 2016 | |
| 1 May 2014 to 1 July 2014 | 1 September 2016 | |
| 1 August 2014 to 1 October 2014 | 1 November 2016 | |
| 1 November 2014 to 1 January 2015 | 1 February 2017 | |
| 1 March 2015 to 1 April 2015 | 1 April 2017 |
Bringing your staging date forward
To allow some flexibility, you can bring your staging date forward.
Here you can find a list of early staging dates and the information you will need to provide to the regulator.