HMRC bins plan to collect employee working hours data

The Treasury has stopped controversial plans to collect information about the exact hours worked by every employee in PAYE returns but dividend reporting goes ahead

The data collection on employee hours was meant to start from April 2026, but the idea has gone in the bin as part of the government’s attempts to reduce red tape and regulatory burden for business.

This means employers will not have to provide HMRC with detailed employee hours data as part of PAYE real time information (RTI) reports. This additional reporting was expected to cost businesses £58m in initial implementation costs due to software upgrades and complex internal reporting requirements, then £10m a year for businesses to operate.

The PAYE hours reporting was originally meant to start from April 2025 but was delayed last August after the Labour government came to power.

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