Country pack: United Kingdom

Run HR and payroll for a legal entity in the United Kingdom for the 2026-27 tax year: PAYE income tax by tax code (with Scottish and Welsh rates), National Insurance by category letter, student and postgraduate loans, the workplace pension under automatic enrolment, statutory sick, maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, bereavement and neonatal care pay, holiday pay (rolled up for irregular hours), notice and statutory redundancy pay, leave and bank holidays, English letters, the BACS direct credit file and the data for the RTI returns, P60 and P45.

Contents: Who can use it · What the pack contains · Install · Employee fields · Payroll · Tax codes · Statutory pay · End of employment · Returns and files · Pack settings · Status of the figures · Example · FAQ

Who can use it

Admins and HR staff who can install country packs on a legal entity. Payroll content (pay components, returns, the bank file) needs payroll on your plan.

What the pack contains

Area	What you get
Income tax (PAYE)	Tax by the person's tax code, cumulative or on the week 1 / month 1 basis. Rates 20%, 40% and 45% after the £12,570 allowance; Scottish rates 19% to 48% for S codes; Welsh rates for C codes; K codes, BR, D0, D1 and NT
National Insurance	Employee 8% between £1,048 and £4,189 a month and 2% above; employer 15% above £417 a month. Category letters A, B, C, H, J, M, V, Z and X
Student loans	Plan 1, 2, 4 and 5 at 9%, postgraduate loan at 6%, above the monthly thresholds, rounded down to the pound
Workplace pension	Automatic enrolment from age 22 to State Pension age above £833 a month: 5% from the worker and 3% from the employer on earnings between £520 and £4,189 a month. Net pay arrangement (before tax) or relief at source (4% from net pay)
Statutory pay	Sick pay from the first day (£123.25 a week or 80% of earnings if lower); maternity and adoption pay (6 weeks at 90%, then £194.32 a week to week 39); paternity, shared parental, bereavement and neonatal care pay at £194.32 a week
Holiday	5.6 weeks (28 days) a year; rolled-up holiday pay of 12.07% for irregular-hours and part-year workers
Leave	Annual leave, sick leave, maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, parental bereavement, neonatal care, unpaid parental leave, carer's leave and time off for dependants
Holidays	New Year's Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day (add the moving bank holidays and your nation's own each year)
Working time	48 hours a week on average (opt-out allowed), 11 hours' daily rest, a 20-minute break after 6 hours; overtime at the contract rate
Notice	One week by default each way (the legal minimum); probation up to 180 days. Both can be changed in Pack settings, never below one week
End of employment	Statutory redundancy pay by age band with the £751 cap on a week's pay; untaken holiday paid
Letters	Offer of employment, employment reference, confirmation of employment and salary, acceptance of resignation
Returns	FPS and EPS data, P60 and P45 data
Bank file	BACS direct credit file (Standard 18)
Calendar	EPS by the 19th, PAYE payment by the 22nd, pension contributions by the 22nd, P60 by 31 May, P11D by 6 July, Class 1A by 22 July

The pack also carries the clauses of the written statement of employment particulars, data protection defaults and electronic signature rules. RTI returns are not sent from 9bx: you get the data to send with your RTI software or HMRC's Basic PAYE Tools.

Install the pack

1. Go to Settings → Legal entities and open the legal entity (its country must be the United Kingdom, currency GBP).
2. Click Install country pack and choose United Kingdom: PAYE, National Insurance, pensions and statutory pay 2026-27 (draft).
3. Read the preview. It lists the pay components, holidays, leave types, work rules, letters and employee fields that will be added.
4. Tick the notice that the pack is not yet verified and click Install.

The payroll goes into a UK monthly pay group and the tax year starts in April. The April run is tax month 1. Letters arrive as drafts: read them and publish them in Documents and letters before use.

Employee fields

The pack adds two sections to every employee profile of that country.

PAYE and National Insurance (UK)

• Tax code: as on the P45 or HMRC's latest notice, for example 1257L, S1257L, C1257L, K475, BR, D0, NT or 0T. Add W1, M1 or X for the emergency basis.
• Week 1 / Month 1 basis: Yes when HMRC's notice gives that basis apart from the code.
• Starter declaration: A, B or C from the starter checklist of a new employee without a P45.
• P45 tax year, Previous pay to date (P45) and Previous tax to date (P45): the figures from the P45 of a new employee. They count only in the tax year you enter (2026 for 2026-27).
• National Insurance category letter: empty counts as A.
• Normal hours worked (RTI band): reported on every FPS.

Loans, pension and statutory pay (UK)

• Student loan plan and Postgraduate loan.
• Opted out of the workplace pension, Opted in to the workplace pension and Pension on relief at source.
• Irregular hours or part-year worker: pays rolled-up holiday pay each month.
• Average weekly earnings for statutory pay and Qualifying days a week (5 when empty).

Put the National Insurance number under the employee's Social security number (the pack labels it National Insurance number). These details are never set from nationality: HR fills them in for each person.

Payroll

The pack replaces the starter UK template's statutory lines. On the payslip you see:

• Income tax (PAYE) in the tax column. A refund shows as a negative amount.
• National Insurance, and National Insurance (employer) as the employer's cost.
• Student loan and Postgraduate loan when they apply.
• Workplace pension (net pay arrangement, 5%) or Workplace pension (relief at source, 4% net), and Workplace pension (employer 3%).
• Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity Pay and the other statutory pay in months with that leave.
• Holiday pay (rolled up, 12.07%) for irregular-hours workers.

Behind the payslip, the calculation keeps the taxable pay and tax to date, the National Insurance bands and the pension's qualifying earnings. They feed the returns. Pay a bonus with the month's salary run: a bonus-only run is not taxed.

Tax codes and PAYE

Each month payroll reads the person's tax code:

• Cumulative codes (for example 1257L): the allowance of the code (1257 × 10 + 9 = £12,579 a year) is spread over the tax months so far. Tax is worked out on the pay to date and the tax already deducted is taken off, so over- and under-payments even out.
• Week 1 / Month 1 (W1, M1, X or the field): the month's pay alone with a twelfth of the allowance.
• K codes: the code's amount is added to pay, and the tax of a month is never more than half of the pay.
• BR, D0, D1 (and SD2, SD3 in Scotland): all pay at one rate. NT: no tax.
• S codes use the Scottish rates and C codes the Welsh rates.
• No tax code: 0T on the month 1 basis until you enter one. For a new starter without a P45, use 1257L for statement A, 1257L M1 for B and BR for C.

When a P45 shows pay and tax from an earlier job in the same tax year, enter them with the P45 tax year: they are added to the cumulative figures.

Statutory pay and leave

Statutory pay is paid for the days of the matching leave type in the month. Record the absence as leave and payroll does the rest:

Leave type	Statutory pay
Sick leave (statutory sick pay)	From the first day, up to 28 weeks: £123.25 a week, or 80% of average weekly earnings if lower
Maternity leave	Weeks 1 to 6 at 90% of average weekly earnings, weeks 7 to 39 at £194.32 or 90% if lower
Adoption leave	As maternity
Paternity leave	Two weeks at £194.32 or 90% if lower
Shared parental leave	Up to 37 weeks at the same rate
Parental bereavement leave	Two weeks at the same rate
Neonatal care leave	Up to 12 weeks at the same rate

The daily amount is the weekly figure divided by the person's qualifying days a week. These leave types are unpaid by the company, so the salary of those days stops and the statutory pay is paid instead. If your contract pays full sick pay, make sick leave a paid leave type and remove the statutory sick pay line from the pay group.

Maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, bereavement and neonatal care pay need average weekly earnings of at least £129. Enter Average weekly earnings for statutory pay from the 8 weeks before the relevant date. Without it, payroll uses the monthly gross. Payroll counts how far into the leave the person is within the same leave request, so record a long leave as one request.

End of employment

The settlement pays untaken holiday at 1/260 of the year's salary for each day. When the company ends the employment after two years, it adds Statutory redundancy pay:

• half a week's pay for each year worked under age 22, one week for each year from 22 to 40, and one and a half weeks from age 41;
• at most 20 years;
• a week's pay capped at £751.

Remove the line when the dismissal is not a redundancy. Notice pay in lieu is paid when the employer ends the employment without notice.

Returns and files

Make the returns in Compliance → Reports:

• Full Payment Submission data (FPS), for the month: one line per person with the National Insurance number, name, date of birth, gender, start and leaving dates, starter declaration, hours band, tax month, tax code and basis, taxable pay and tax this period and to date, National Insurance category and bands, employee and employer contributions, student loans, pension contributions, statutory pay and net pay.
• Employer Payment Summary data (EPS): choose 6 April to the end of the month for the year to date. One line for the company with statutory pay paid and what can be recovered (92%, or 100% plus 3% compensation for a small employer), employer contributions and the pay bill for the apprenticeship levy.
• P60 end of year certificate data: for the tax year, per person.
• P45 data for leavers: for the month, the people whose employment ended in it, with the pay and tax to date and the tax code.

In a locked payroll run, the Bank file tab offers BACS direct credit file (Standard 18): one line per employee and a contra line for the total, to import into your BACS software or bureau. Each employee's sort code goes in the routing code of the bank account.

Pack settings

Open the legal entity's country pack and click Pack settings:

• Bank file (BACS): Paying sort code (6 digits), Paying account number (8 digits), Name on the file and, under Advanced, Payment reference and Add the contra record. The bank file cannot be made until the paying account is set.
• Notice and probation: Notice by the employee (days), Notice by the employer (days) (at least 7) and Longest probation (days).

Status of the figures

The pack is draft. It was written from HMRC's rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027, the PAYE Regulations, the Scottish and Welsh rates, the Pensions Regulator's thresholds and the employment law as they stood in October 2026. Every item names its source and lists the points the reviewer must confirm. It becomes verified only after a qualified UK reviewer signs. Until then every screen that uses it says the figures are not verified. Your company stays responsible for its filings.

Not worked out: company directors' annual National Insurance, salary sacrifice, payrolled benefits in kind, two student loan plans at once, Freeport and Investment Zone categories and Northern Ireland's own statutory pay rules. Handle them in your RTI software or with an adjustment.

Example scenario

Olivia works in Manchester on £36,000 a year (£3,000 a month), tax code 1257L, category A, Plan 2 student loan, enrolled in the pension (net pay arrangement). In April:

• the pension takes 5% of £2,480 = £124.00 before tax and the company adds £74.40;
• taxable pay is £2,876, and with free pay of £1,048.25 income tax is £365.40;
• National Insurance is £156.16 (employer £387.45);
• the student loan takes 9% of the pay above £2,448.75, £49.

If Olivia lived in Scotland (S1257L), her income tax on £3,000 without the pension would be £392.27 instead of £390.20.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

No income tax, or tax at 20% on everything. Check the Tax code: an empty or unreadable code is taxed as 0T on the month 1 basis.

The tax jumped in one month. Cumulative codes catch up: a refund or extra tax after a code change or a month with low pay is normal. Use the week 1 / month 1 basis only when HMRC says so.

No statutory maternity pay. The leave must use the Maternity leave type and the average weekly earnings must be at least £129.

The pension does not start. Workers under 22, over State Pension age or earning £833 a month or less are not enrolled automatically: set Opted in to the workplace pension when they ask to join.

The bank file is refused. Set the paying sort code and account in Pack settings. Each employee needs a 6-digit sort code and an account number of up to 8 digits.

A rate changed in April. A new version of the pack carries the change. You see it under Compliance → Country packs and upgrade when ready. Until then you can change the amount in the pay component.