Can I pay my employee if they don’t have a National Insurance number?

You can pay an employee without a National Insurance number just as normally. Tax and National Insurance contributions will still be calculated and deducted from their pay.

Tide Payroll will report the missing number to HMRC using the employee’s name, address, date of birth, and gender. 

Please encourage the employee to apply for a National Insurance number as soon as possible. While there’s no strict time limit, getting a National Insurance number quickly helps keeping records accurate and avoiding HMRC issues.

When the employee gets their National Insurance number, you must update their profile in Tide Payroll immediately. You can do this on Tide on the web by clicking on:

Admin > View Team > select an employee > Personal > National Insurance > Update.

The platform will use this number for future HMRC submissions.