Transferring employees between payrolls

Produced by Tolley in association with Ian Holloway
Employment Tax
Guidance

Transferring employees between payrolls

Produced by Tolley in association with Ian Holloway
Employment Tax
Guidance
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Operating more than one payroll

All an employer’s payroll reporting will usually be encompassed within the same PAYE reference (PAYE scheme). However, sometimes an employer will prefer to have more than one PAYE reference to cover its various payroll obligations. There may be a variety of reasons for doing so, including:

  1. having different pay frequencies, eg monthly and weekly

  2. to group employees by location, eg a retailer having a payroll for each store

  3. to group employees by occupation, eg a hospital may have all its doctors on one payroll and its nurses and other staff on another

  4. to divide employees in a larger group situation more efficiently for payroll purposes, by business unit rather than by legal employing group entity

  5. to run a separate payroll for senior staff for reasons of confidentiality

  6. to run separate payrolls for expatriate staff recognising their bespoke PAYE or national insurance contributions (NIC) obligations (see the Modified payrolls for tax equalised inbound employees (EP Appendix 6) guidance note)

  7. to retain more than one payroll

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Ian Holloway
Ian Holloway linkedinicon

Payroll and Reward Consultant , Employment Tax, Personal Tax


Ian has been in the payroll profession for over 30 years, processing payrolls from all sectors, large and small. He moved from hands-on exposure in 2011 to become involved in educating the profession. His wide-ranging experience and up-to-date knowledge ensures he can impart this information to UK professionals through course material, social media, newsletters and face-to-face presentations.However, educating the profession cannot be achieved without knowing how the profession works on a day-to-day basis and involvement with hands-on administration is essential. So, today, Ian operates as a consultant and advisor and is involved with a vital aspect of the payroll and reward environment, that of working with the software that does a lot of the hard work for the profession.The return to being involved in a hands-on environment has not stopped his desire to inform, educate and train the UK payroll profession. Indeed, this is now better-achieved, as he can draw on real processing situations.Ian approaches education and communication very much from the perspective of how this will impact the software, the employer and the worker. So, whilst the legislation is vital, compliance and effective communication are paramount.Ian is Companion of the Institute for Certified Bookkeepers (ICB), committee member of the British Computer Society (BCS), a committee members of the ICAEW’s Tax Faculty and a Fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP).

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  • 23 Apr 2026 15:00

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