HMRC has made a tidy update to the PAYE rulebook. The Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2025 were made on 30 October 2025, laid on 3 November 2025 and come into force on Monday 24 November 2025. For employers, this is a wording fix, not a change to process or liability.

Two edits sit behind the change. The PAYE Regulations 2003 are updated so that references to “Inland Revenue” are replaced with “HMRC” and, crucially, the definition now covers the Commissioners as well as officers of HMRC. In practice, that lets the Commissioners carry out some functions previously exercised only by officers, but it does not widen HMRC’s reach over employers.

Regulation 198(1) on the “use of unauthorised method of electronic communication” is also adjusted to say “HMRC” instead of “the Board of Inland Revenue or the Inland Revenue”, avoiding a duplicate reference after the new definition. The substance of the rule is unchanged: only approved electronic methods count for filing.

Day‑to‑day payroll work is unaffected. There are no changes to PAYE tax codes, rates, thresholds, RTI file formats, payment dates or approved channels. The long‑standing position remains that information sent via an unapproved channel is treated as not delivered; the label simply now reads “HMRC”.

Names on letters may shift. Because the definition now explicitly encompasses the Commissioners of HMRC, some notices or approvals may be issued in the Commissioners’ name rather than “an officer of HMRC”. The instrument itself is signed by Commissioners Angela MacDonald and Jonathan Athow. Treat this as an internal-authority tidy‑up, not a new enforcement power.

What finance and payroll teams should do before Monday 24 November: sweep contracts, HR letters, scheme rules and standing authorisations for any legacy “Inland Revenue” references and update them to “HMRC”. If your compliance tooling, mailroom rules or document templates key off the old phrasing, refresh them so nothing is misrouted or delayed.

Payroll software should not need code changes. RTI submissions, EPS/FPS payloads and Bacs references stay the same. As a belt‑and‑braces check, confirm your software still routes via HMRC‑approved channels and remind staff that email is not an approved route for filing or changing PAYE data.

For context, earlier in 2025 HMRC made housekeeping changes via SI 2025/294, including inserting a definition of the “secondary threshold” effective 6 April 2025, and separately introduced the Income Tax (Additional Information to be included in Returns) Regulations 2025 from the same date. Today’s fix sits on a different, purely administrative track.

Bottom line for CFOs and payroll leads: treat this as documentation hygiene. Update wording and make sure your teams and vendors recognise that “HMRC” now stands wherever the PAYE Regulations used to say “Inland Revenue”. No budget impact, no workflow rebuild, and no change to your November PAYE timetable.