Week 53

When should an employer use “Week 53” in the payroll?

This happens when a pay day falls on 31st December or, in a leap year, on 30th or 31st December.

"Week 53" occurs when there are fifty-three weekly pay days in the year:

• in 2016, employers paying wages on a Friday or Saturday will have 53 pay days, thus a Week 53.

• in 2017, employers paying wages on a Sunday will have 53 pay days, thus a Week 53.

Thesaurus Payroll Manager will always offer a Week 53 option subsequent to the completion of Week 52. However, it should only be used (i.e. payroll input and payslips finalised for week 53) if, on completion of week 52, there is a subsequent pay period within the same tax year.

Thesaurus Payroll Manager automatically applies any USC cut off points, employee’s tax credit and cut off
points on a Week 1 basis in the week 53 payroll, as per Revenue regulations.

Paying two weeks together - Important Information

Please note: if you do not have a requirement for week 53 but you need to pay two weeks together at the end of the year it is important to enter the pay for the two weeks in the software for the relevant tax year to keep in line with Revenue's tax weeks.

Example - Employer pays  wages every Thursday:

• Week 52 - Pay Date 29th December
• Due to Christmas holidays - the employer has to pay week 52 & week one before they close for Christmas
• Week 52 - recorded in the 2016 software
• Week 1 - recorded in the 2017 software
• Paying by bank transfer - the pay date can be amended when generating the bank file to ensure payment is processed when required

Week 53 USC Concession - Exclusion

Please note: if an employee's normal pay day has changed during this tax year or the preceding tax year, the
additional USC cut off points do not apply. You will need to instruct the software if the additional USC cut off
points are not applicable to an employee. To prevent the additional USC cut off points being allocated go to:

• Employees > Add/Amend Employees > Select the employee >
• Click the Revenue Details tab > Tick to indicate exemptions/exclusions apply >
• Tick to exclude the employee from the week 53 USC concession > 
• 'Update' to save the change.