The collector: HMRC owns PAYE income tax, National Insurance and Real Time Information (RTI) reporting — it sits on every payday and takes the money. It also decides what "HMRC recognised" software means (recognition, not endorsement).
The pension regulator and the policy-setters: The Pensions Regulator owns auto-enrolment; the DWP sets Statutory Sick Pay and statutory parental-pay policy (and drives the 6 April 2026 SSP reform); HM Treasury, through the Budget, sets the rates and thresholds that change each 6 April.
The register, the surface and the rails: Companies House runs the overseas-company register — a place-of-business axis, not an employment one; GOV.UK is the surface where almost every duty here is operatively published; and Pay.UK / Bacs carry the salary itself.
This page tells you who owns each part of UK payroll and when they touch your pay run — it is not the figures. The tax-year numbers (rates, thresholds, statutory-pay amounts) live on the topic pages: PAYE, NI & auto-enrolment and statutory lodgement & RTI. Every claim below traces to a government source listed at the foot of the page; where a body's role is thinly evidenced in those sources, we say so rather than overstate it.
The map at a glance
| Body | What it owns | When you'll hear from it |
|---|---|---|
| HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) | PAYE income tax, Class 1 National Insurance, RTI (FPS/EPS), PAYE-scheme registration, statutory-payment reclaim, and payroll-software recognition | Every payday (FPS on or before), every remittance (22nd electronic / 19th postal), at registration, and the moment a report or payment is late |
| GOV.UK | The single operative surface where HMRC, DWP and Companies House employer guidance is published | Continuously — it is where you read almost every duty on this page (a publishing surface, not itself a regulator) |
| The Pensions Regulator (TPR) | Auto-enrolment employer duties and the declaration / re-declaration of compliance | At your duties start date, at re-enrolment (roughly every three years), and if pension contributions are paid late |
| Companies House | The overseas-company register (form OS IN01) — a place-of-business axis, not an employment one | Only if you set up a UK place of business (register within one month); not triggered by merely employing a UK worker |
| Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) | Statutory Sick Pay and statutory parental-pay policy; benefit-debt (Direct Earnings Attachment) deductions; the auto-enrolment threshold review | When policy changes (e.g. the 6 April 2026 SSP reform) and when it asks you to run a Direct Earnings Attachment |
| HM Treasury / the Budget | Sets the tax and National Insurance rates and thresholds that take effect on 6 April | Once a year — the numbers you apply from 6 April are fixed at the Budget and published to the employer rates page |
| Pay.UK / Bacs | The Bacs payment rails that carry salary — the Service User Number, Standard 18 format and the three-day cycle | Every pay run paid by Bacs (submit to the three-day cycle); and when you pay HMRC by Bacs (three working days) |
HMRC — the tax rail that sits on every pay run
HM Revenue & Customs is the authority you interact with most, because it is wired into the pay run itself: every payday reports to it and every pound withheld is its money in transit.
What it owns. Income tax collected at source through PAYE ("Pay As You Earn"); Class 1 National Insurance, both the employee's primary and the employer's secondary contribution; Real Time Information (RTI) — the requirement to "report your employee's pay, any payrolled benefits, and deductions in a Full Payment Submission (FPS) on or before their payday", plus the Employer Payment Summary (EPS) for reclaims, the Employment Allowance and no-payment months; PAYE-scheme registration and the employer identifiers (the employer PAYE reference and Accounts Office reference); and statutory-payment reclaim — GOV.UK: "you can usually reclaim 92% of employees' Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP), Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay, Statutory Neonatal Care Pay and Statutory Shared Parental Pay", or "109% if your business qualifies for Small Employers' Relief". HMRC's authority is stated operatively on GOV.UK and, at the detailed level, in its own PAYE Manual — for example the territorial-limit rule that PAYE bites only where the employer has a "tax presence" in the UK.
What it takes. The PAYE tax and National Insurance you deduct, reported through RTI every payday and remitted "by the 22nd of the next tax month if you pay monthly" (the 19th if you pay by post), with a quarterly option for small employers. See statutory lodgement & RTI for the FPS/EPS mechanics and deadlines.
When you'll hear from it. At registration (before your first payday); on every reporting and payment deadline; and immediately when something slips — a late or missing FPS, or a late payment, both of which carry their own penalty regimes.
"HMRC recognised" is recognition, not endorsement. HMRC keeps a list of recognised payroll software, but is careful about what that means: "HMRC cannot recommend one product or service over another. We're also not responsible for any problems you have with software you've bought." Recognition is a capability check — the product is built and tested against HMRC's published RTI technical specifications and payroll test data — not a ranking or a warranty. HMRC also publishes its own free tool, Basic PAYE Tools, "for businesses with fewer than 10 employees", while noting "other payroll software is available".
Income tax on employment income is partly devolved, so PAYE must hold more than one rate table and pick by tax code, not by address. For 2026-27, England, Northern Ireland and Wales share one table (Welsh taxpayers carry a C prefix but Wales set its rates equal to England & NI), while Scotland runs its own six-band table marked by an S prefix. HMRC applies the right nation's rates through the code prefix — National Insurance, by contrast, is UK-wide. The figures live on PAYE, NI & auto-enrolment.
GOV.UK — the operative guidance surface
GOV.UK is not, strictly, a regulator — it is the single publishing surface where the regulators state your duties operatively, and in practice it is where an employer reads almost everything on this page.
When HMRC tells you how to run payroll, when Companies House tells an overseas company how to register, when the guidance on itemised payslips ("Payslips must be provided on or before payday") or the written statement of employment particulars ("An employer must give employees and workers a document stating the main conditions of employment when they start work") is set out — it is published on GOV.UK. The distinction matters because it tells you where to confirm a figure before a pay run: the authority behind the rule is HMRC, the DWP or Companies House, but the operative wording you act on sits on gov.uk. Treat GOV.UK as the surface of record; treat the named body behind each page as the authority. (This is a plain description of the publishing arrangement, not a statement that GOV.UK holds regulatory power of its own.)
The Pensions Regulator — auto-enrolment's regulator
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) owns the automatic-enrolment employer duty — the workplace pension every qualifying worker is enrolled into by default.
What it owns. The duty itself and its clock. TPR: "Your workplace pension legal duties begin on the day your first member of staff starts work. This is known as your duties start date." It owns the minimum-contribution rule — "This is set at 8% of your member of staff's earnings. You, the employer, must pay at least 3% of this, but you can choose to pay more" — and it owns the compliance cycle: "Re-enrolment takes place every three years", after which the employer must re-enrol certain staff and complete a re-declaration of compliance. The statutory base is the Pensions Act 2008; the enrolment mechanics (trigger, qualifying-earnings band, postponement) are covered in PAYE, NI & auto-enrolment.
What it takes. No routine remittance — pension contributions go to the scheme, not to TPR. But TPR sets the deadline: "when you take contributions from your staff's pay you must pay these to your pension scheme by the 22nd (19th if you pay by cheque) day of the next month", and "You may be fined by The Pensions Regulator if you don't pay by the time you've agreed with your scheme provider." What TPR takes from you directly is a declaration of compliance (and, on the three-year cycle, a re-declaration) confirming how the duties were met.
When you'll hear from it. At your duties start date, at each re-enrolment cycle roughly every three years, and if contributions are late or a declaration is missed.
The re-declaration duty is firmly sourced. The precise deadline for the initial declaration of compliance (commonly cited as within five months of the duties start date) is not verbatim-confirmed in the records behind this page — treat the exact window as something to check on The Pensions Regulator's site before you rely on it.
Companies House — the separate axis
Companies House is on this map for one reason, and it is not payroll: it runs the register an overseas company must join if it sets up shop in the UK.
What it owns. The overseas-company register. An overseas entity "must register if you set up a place of business in the UK or if you usually carry out business from somewhere in the UK", using form OS IN01, sent "within 1 month of opening for business" with a registration fee (£124 at the time the source was checked, and periodically uprated — confirm the current fee). Crucially, this is a place-of-business trigger, not an employment one.
What it takes. A one-off registration (and ongoing filings) — not a payroll remittance. Nothing on the payday cycle passes through Companies House.
When you'll hear from it. Only if you cross the place-of-business line. GOV.UK is explicit that employing people alone does not: "If you do not have a base in the UK … You do not need to register with Companies House." That is why an overseas employer can run UK payroll — via a PAYE scheme, or with the employee self-accounting where there is no UK tax presence — without ever registering at Companies House. The run payroll from overseas page works through how the tax-presence, employer-NI host and place-of-business tests come apart.
The DWP — sick pay, parental pay and the rules that ride the pay run
The Department for Work & Pensions owns the policy behind several payments and deductions that pass through payroll, even though HMRC administers the money.
What it owns. Statutory Sick Pay and statutory parental-pay policy — the entitlements employers pay and (for family pay) reclaim. The most consequential current change is a DWP-driven one: under the Employment Rights Act 2025, Statutory Sick Pay is being reformed from 6 April 2026. The DWP factsheet describes "Removing the Lower Earnings Limit to make Statutory Sick Pay available to all employees regardless of their weekly earnings" and confirms "The Act also removes the waiting period meaning all eligible employees can receive Statutory Sick Pay from the first day of sickness absence." Until then, SSP is "£123.25 a week … or 80% of your normal weekly earnings - whichever is lower". The DWP also owns the Direct Earnings Attachment: "As an employer you may be asked to deduct benefit overpayments an employee owes the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) from their pay", and it reviews the auto-enrolment earnings thresholds each year (for 2026-27 "the Secretary of State … decided to maintain the existing threshold values").
What it takes. No routine remittance to the DWP itself — SSP is paid to the employee (and, since the Percentage Threshold Scheme was abolished, is not reclaimable), family statutory pay is reclaimed from HMRC, and a Direct Earnings Attachment is paid across to the DWP only when it asks you to run one.
When you'll hear from it. When policy shifts under your feet — the 6 April 2026 SSP overhaul is the live example — and when it issues a Direct Earnings Attachment notice against one of your employees. See leave & statutory pay for the SSP and parental-pay figures.
HM Treasury and the Budget — who sets the 6-April numbers
The rates and thresholds a UK payroll applies are not set by HMRC — HMRC administers them. They are set by HM Treasury through the Budget, and they change on a fixed cadence: 6 April, the start of the tax year.
Income tax bands, the National Insurance thresholds and rates, the Employment Allowance, the auto-enrolment figures and the statutory-pay amounts are reviewed for each tax year and take effect from 6 April. Where those numbers land operatively is the employer rates and thresholds page — that is the surface a payroll actually reads. The practical consequence: a figure that was correct last year can be an underpayment this year, and the safest habit is to re-read the current-year rates page each April rather than trust a cached number.
The sources behind this page evidence the 6-April, tax-year-dated nature of the rates via the annually re-issued employer rates page; they do not carry a standalone HM Treasury or Budget document. We attribute the rate-setting to HM Treasury / the Budget as the well-established UK arrangement, but link only the record-carried rates page as the operative source. Treat the Budget attribution as context, and the linked rates page as the authority for the numbers.
Pay.UK and Bacs — the payment rails
Once tax is worked out and reported, the money still has to move. UK salary payments run over Bacs, the retail payment scheme operated by Pay.UK.
What it owns. The rails and their conventions. Bacs allocates each authorised organisation a Service User Number (SUN) — "The unique six digit number allocated to organisations authorised to use the Bacs service" — and salary payments travel as Bacs Direct Credits in the Standard 18 file format ("The Bacs standard file/record format used by the Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit schemes"). The scheme runs on a fixed three-day cycle: "Day 1 (Input day) – Service User submits data to Bacs; Day 2 (Processing day) …; Day 3 (Entry day) – The Beneficiary's account is credited."
What it takes. Nothing in tax terms — but it takes your pay data on its clock: a Bacs run must be submitted to the three-day cycle to land on payday, and if you pay HMRC by Bacs, "Bacs payments usually take 3 working days" (Faster Payments or CHAPS are same/next-day).
When you'll hear from it. Every pay run that pays by Bacs, through the three-day timing your software or bureau manages for you.
Where an employer pays employees by Bacs using its own allocated SUN, RTI historically required a 64-character "hash cross reference" (FPS data item 118) matched to a sub-reference in the Bacs instruction. HMRC's dedicated how-to guidance for this was withdrawn with effect from 6 April 2023 ("out of date"). The data item still exists in the RTI schema, but the mechanism was always narrow — "generally this requirement will only impact on large employers or pension providers" — so treat it as real-but-rare, and confirm current-year handling against the live RTI specification before relying on it.
Quick answers
Who does a UK employer actually pay money to?
Routinely, two destinations take payroll money. HMRC receives the PAYE income tax you deduct plus both sides of Class 1 National Insurance, remitted by the 22nd of the next tax month if you pay electronically (the 19th if you pay by post), or quarterly if you usually pay less than £1,500 a month. Each worker's workplace pension scheme receives the auto-enrolment contributions: by law you must pay these to the scheme by the 22nd (19th if you pay by cheque) of the following month. The Pensions Regulator, Companies House, the DWP and HM Treasury take no routine payroll remittance — they set duties, hold registers or set rates. The salary itself reaches employees over the Bacs rails run by Pay.UK.
Does "HMRC recognised" payroll software mean HMRC endorses it?
No. Recognition means only that the software can be used to report PAYE to HMRC online. GOV.UK is explicit: "HMRC cannot recommend one product or service over another. We're also not responsible for any problems you have with software you've bought." Recognition is earned by building and testing against HMRC's published RTI technical specifications and payroll test data — it is a capability check that the software can file correctly, not an endorsement, a ranking or a quality guarantee. HMRC does publish its own free product, Basic PAYE Tools, for businesses with fewer than 10 employees, but it points out that other payroll software is available.
Do Scotland and Wales set their own income tax that a UK payroll must handle?
Income tax on employment income is partly devolved, so a UK payroll must hold more than one rate table and pick by tax code, not by where the payslip is posted. For 2026-27 England, Northern Ireland and Wales share one table (Welsh taxpayers carry a "C" prefix, but Wales has set its rates equal to England and Northern Ireland), while Scotland runs its own six-band table (an "S" prefix) rising to a 48% top rate. HMRC drives the right table through the tax code prefix, applied through PAYE — so the devolved element the employer actually handles is the code, not a separate return. National Insurance, by contrast, is UK-wide with no devolved split.
When is Companies House involved in employing someone in the UK?
Only on a separate axis from payroll. Companies House owns the overseas-company register: an overseas entity must register — on form OS IN01, within one month of opening for business — if it sets up a place of business in the UK or usually carries out business from somewhere in the UK. That is a place-of-business trigger, not an employment trigger. GOV.UK is blunt: "If you do not have a base in the UK … You do not need to register with Companies House." So employing a single UK homeworker with no office can trip none of the three UK tests at once — no PAYE tax presence, no employer-NI host, and no Companies House place of business — and the payroll obligations attach (or not) independently of the register.
Every authority's clock, answered from one pay run
Ledra Pay's United Kingdom country pack knows which body owns which step: it files RTI to HMRC on or before payday, remits PAYE and National Insurance on the 22nd cycle, runs the auto-enrolment assessment and pays contributions to the scheme by The Pensions Regulator's deadline, applies the DWP's statutory-pay rules (including the 6 April 2026 SSP reform), picks the right nation's tax table from the code, and moves salary over the Bacs three-day cycle — with a receipt on every write so you can see which authority each obligation answered.
See UK coverage →Government sources
- HMRC PAYE Manual — PAYE81610: employers' presence in the UK (the territorial limit — PAYE applies only where the employer has a "tax presence" in the UK, per Oceanic 56 TC 183).
- GOV.UK — Register as an employer (register before the first payday to get your employer PAYE reference).
- GOV.UK — What payroll information to report to HMRC (the FPS "on or before payday" rule; the employer PAYE and Accounts Office references).
- GOV.UK — Running payroll: reporting to HMRC (EPS) (the Employer Payment Summary — reclaims, Employment Allowance and no-payment months).
- GOV.UK — Pay employers' PAYE (remit by the 22nd of the next tax month, the 19th if paying by post; quarterly for small employers).
- GOV.UK — Recover statutory payments: reclaiming (usually reclaim 92% of statutory family pay, or 109% with Small Employers' Relief).
- GOV.UK — Find payroll software that is recognised by HMRC ("HMRC cannot recommend one product or service over another … not responsible for any problems").
- GOV.UK — PAYE recognition for payroll software developers (the RTI technical specifications and payroll test data recognition is tested against).
- GOV.UK — Download HMRC's Basic PAYE Tools (HMRC's own free software for businesses with fewer than 10 employees).
- GOV.UK — Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 (the 6-April, tax-year-dated rates and thresholds — the operative surface for Budget-set numbers; includes the Scotland bands and the Wales note).
- GOV.UK — Tax codes: letters in your tax code ("S" = Scotland, "C" = Wales prefixes that drive the right rate table).
- GOV.UK — Payslips ("Payslips must be provided on or before payday").
- GOV.UK — Written statement of employment particulars (the day-one written-statement duty, published operatively on GOV.UK).
- The Pensions Regulator — New employers ("Your workplace pension legal duties begin on the day your first member of staff starts work").
- The Pensions Regulator — Making contributions to your pension scheme (8% total / at least 3% employer; contributions paid to the scheme by the 22nd, 19th by cheque).
- The Pensions Regulator — Re-enrolment and re-declaration ("Re-enrolment takes place every three years").
- GOV.UK / Companies House — Register as an overseas company (form OS IN01, within one month; a place-of-business trigger — "If you do not have a base in the UK … You do not need to register").
- DWP / GOV.UK — Statutory Sick Pay factsheet (Employment Rights Act 2025) (removes the Lower Earnings Limit and waiting period from 6 April 2026).
- GOV.UK — Statutory Sick Pay: what you'll get ("£123.25 a week … or 80% of your normal weekly earnings - whichever is lower").
- DWP / GOV.UK — Make benefit debt deductions from an employee's pay (the Direct Earnings Attachment — deduct benefit overpayments owed to the DWP).
- DWP / GOV.UK — Review of the automatic enrolment earnings trigger and qualifying earnings band for 2026/27 (the Secretary of State maintains the existing thresholds).
- Bacs (Pay.UK) — Glossary (Service User Number = six-digit; Standard 18 format; the three-day input/processing/entry cycle).
- GOV.UK — Pay employers' PAYE: bank details ("Bacs payments usually take 3 working days"; Faster Payments / CHAPS same or next day).
Related
How the PAYE tax-presence, employer-NI host and Companies House place-of-business tests come apart — and how an overseas entity employs in the UK.
The FPS "on or before payday" rule, the EPS, correcting mistakes, and the 22nd / 19th deadlines for paying HMRC.
Tax codes and the rUK / Scotland / Wales rate splits, Class 1 National Insurance, and the auto-enrolment employer duty.