Employing students in the summer break

If you employ students to manage your staff needs over the summer break period, you will need to add them to your payroll and apply PAYE and NIC rules.

Students should be advised that they will pay tax and NIC if:

they earn more than £1,048 a month on average, and
pay NIC if they earn more than £190 a week from 6 April 2022 to 5 July 2022 and more than £242 from 6 July 2022 to 5 April 2023.

Students can also apply for a possible tax refund if they work for part of a tax year.

Students who normally live and study in the UK but work abroad during the holidays will need to pay:

UK tax on anything they earn above their Personal Allowance, currently £12,570, and
National Insurance if they work for a UK employer.

If students work for a foreign employer, they do not need to pay National Insurance in the UK, but may have to pay contributions in the country they are working in.

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