Guidance

Tell HMRC when an employee leaves using Basic PAYE Tools

Updated 27 February 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-paye-tools-what-to-do-when-an-employee-leaves/basic-paye-tools-when-an-employee-leaves

Use this guide if you currently use Basic PAYE Tools to operate payroll. It explains the steps you need to follow when an employee leaves or dies, and the order in which they need to be done.

This guide does not cover what to do if an employee:

Add the final employee payment

Follow these steps to add a final employee payment before making a final submission for the employee who is leaving.

  1. Launch Basic PAYE Tools and select Home. This will take you to the home page.
  2. Select the correct employer from the ‘Employer’ list on the left.
  3. Select Manage employees from the menu on the left.
  4. Select the employee’s name in the middle of the ‘Manage employees’ page to go to the ‘Employee details’ page.
  5. Select Employee payments from the menu on the left.
  6. Select Add employee payment from the menu on the left.
  7. Enter the payment date. This is the date when the final payment will be made to the employee.
  8. Enter the pay amount for Income Tax purposes. This is the total of ‘standard’ pay, such as salary, holiday pay and bonuses, due to this employee up to their date of leaving. Do not include one-off payments such as redundancy payments or retirement lump sums.
  9. Select Next to continue through the pages until you return to the ‘Employee payments’ page. This creates a Full Payment Submission.

Add the employee’s leaving date

Follow these steps to add an employee’s leaving date after completing the final Full Payment Submission.

  1. Select the relevant employee in the centre of the ‘Manage employees’ page.
  2. Select Leaver summary on the left of the ‘Employee details’ page.
  3. Select Add leaving date on the left of the ‘Leaver summary’ page.
  4. Check that you have completed all the actions in the guidance on the ‘Add leaving date’ page.
  5. Enter the employee’s leaving date. This is their last working day. If the employee has died, it is the date of their death.
  6. Select Next to go to the updated ‘Review leaver details’ page.

Send the leaver’s details to HMRC

Send the leaving employee’s final pay and leaver details to HMRC on or before the day you pay the employee.

  1. On the home page, select the employer from the ‘Employer’ list.
  2. Select View outstanding submissions from the menu on the left to go to the ‘Outstanding submission details’ page.
  3. Select Send all outstanding submissions from the menu on the left.
  4. Read the information on the ‘Submit data to HM Revenue & Customs’ page.
  5. Select Next to go to the ‘Submission authentication’ page.
  6. Enter your Government Gateway user ID and password.
  7. Select Next to go to the ‘Submission status’ page, followed by the ‘Submission results’ page. This will give you a unique reference number for your submission.

After sending the leaver’s details to HMRC you can view and print the P45, which shows how much tax they have paid on their salary in the current tax year. You must give the P45 to your employees when they leave. They will need to give the P45 to their next employer.

  1. On the home page, select the employer from the ‘Employer’ list.
  2. Select Manage employees from the menu on the left.
  3. Select the employee’s name in the middle of the ‘Manage employees’ page to go to the ‘Employee details’ page.
  4. Select Leaver summary from the menu on the left.
  5. Select the link in the ‘Actions’ column in the middle of the page to view the P45.
  6. Print the P45 and give it to the employee. If the employee has ‘W1’ or ‘M1’ in their tax code, you will need to enter amounts manually after printing the P45.

View final details for an employee who has left

  1. On the home page, select the employer from the ‘Employer’ list.
  2. Select Manage employees from the menu on the left.
  3. Select the employee name in the middle of the ‘Manage employees’ page to go to the ‘Employee details’ page.
  4. Select Employee payments from the menu on the left.
  5. Select Employee year to date summary to view the final employee details.
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