A payroll client has told me that there will be no wages paid in Week 52 (this is the same client that wanted week 51 and week 1 processing in week 51!). The reason for no wages being processed is for tax refunds.
I know we are just to process whatever our client tells us to as best we can but surely this is illegal? And surely their employees are not going to go without a weeks wage for the sake of a small tax refund that would only come about because no wages have been processed that week, not because they are actually due one?
I think the client is getting mixed up with the tax refunds HMRC send out by post if they feel someone has paid too much tax and the kind of tax refund that occurs when someone has a pay cut/no wages etc.
Am I right in thinking that the employees are not really gaining anything by doing this?
I am not aware of any valid "tax refund related" reason for not processing week 52 in the normal way.
Correct operation and processing of PAYE is not an optional extra. If the employees worked the week that would normally be paid in W52, then the pay should be processed as normal in PAYE week 52.
