Saint Helena island: employer PAYE compliance

Register and establish the deduction method

These are Saint Helena island rules only. Under Income Tax Regulations regulation 4, a person paying or becoming liable to pay employment income must register within 30 days after the last day of the month in which that first payment or liability arose. Address changes and cessation as an employer must be notified within 30 days. Official regulations, Part 3.

Regulations 5–6 require deductions using the Commissioner's PAYE tables. For an employee with more than one employer, deductions for each employment are as the Commissioner directs. Temporary and non-ordinary residents must declare their expected residence duration. A variation under regulation 7 needs the relevant Commissioner approval or notice. Do not replace these procedures with an annual-tax figure divided by twelve. Regulations 5–7.

Ordinary calendar

Duty	Deadline and authority
Remit deducted PAYE	No later than the 15th of the following month, regulation 8
Monthly employer statement	Within 15 days of month end, regulation 13
Normal annual employer statement	Within one month of tax-year end, regulation 14
Normal annual employee certificate	Within one month of tax-year end for continuing employment, regulation 10

The current tax-office page identifies P6 as the monthly employer return and P7 as the annual employer return, due 30 April. Regulation 14 has separate cessation and permitted-extension provisions. Regulation 10 also has separate certificate rules for employment/employer cessation. Apply those clauses when employment ends; do not postpone every leaver document until April. Regulations 8, 10, 13–14.

Small PAYE liabilities

Regulation 15 applies where the employer's annual liability to remit deducted tax is less than £300. It provides for payment and statements by the 15th day after the ends of tax-year months three, six, nine and twelve. For the ordinary April-to-March year those dates fall in July, October, January and April. Exactly £300 is outside that less-than threshold. A nil-liability employer needs approval to provide only the annual statement. Do not infer that nil payroll deductions remove all reporting duties. Regulation 15.

Reconcile before submission

The monthly statement shows gross employment income, tax deducted and tax remitted. The annual statement reconciles each employee's income and deductions to total payments; regulation 14(2) requires the employer to account for a deficiency. Regulations 13–14.

Example: the payroll ledger records £900 of properly determined PAYE deductions and the payment ledger records £850 remitted. The reconciliation identifies a £50 shortfall. It does not reduce the employee deduction ledger to £850 to make the totals agree. This is a reconciliation example; it does not calculate the underlying deductions.

Records and employees' evidence

Regulation 12 requires employee-level employment-income and tax-deduction records retained for seven years from the relevant tax-year end. Regulation 10(7) requires gross employment income and deducted-tax particulars on each payment occasion. Keep the applicable table or Commissioner direction with the payroll working papers as a recommended control. Regulations 10 and 12.

This batch does not reproduce an authenticated current PAYE table or price benefits in kind. Establish those inputs before operating payroll. Employer PAYE duties are distinct from employees' annual-return rules under sections 37–39.

Verification boundary

Checked 22 October 2026 against the official Income Tax Ordinance consolidation authoritative at 1 October 2021 and the additional sources linked above. The Gazette index was searched for later income-tax instruments; its Ascension rate orders do not apply to Saint Helena island. A complete audit of later resolutions and instruments and independent accountant review remain outstanding. This is a source-cited draft, not comprehensive coverage of the SH territory code or accountant attestation.

Contributed by Ryan Duguid.