The RTI holiday is coming to an end, and from April employers will face penalties for late submission of the monthly Full Payment Summary (“FPS”).
Under RTI, an FPS needs to be submitted before payment is made to an employee. You should remember that the FPS must include details of payments made to all employees even if there are no deductions due on those payments. For instance, if you operate a monthly payroll and employ a cleaner who has no other employment and you pay them £20 per week then a weekly FPS needs to be submitted in addition to your monthly FPS even though no deductions are due on these payments.
HMRC has recently made some updates to its guidance for employers on reporting PAYE information in real time. These updates are intended to forewarn employers about changes they’ll see on payroll submissions from April 2014, new entries they’ll make in their payroll records and other new information to help employers meet their obligations.
The updates include:
- a ‘Late reporting reason’ that can be entered on an FPS that’s late
- being able to make your first 2014-15 PAYE submission any time after 6 March 2014
- providing bank account details on an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) to get quicker repayments ·
- new fields on an Earlier Year Update (EYU) you’re completing for 2013-14
- a new online appeals facility being introduced in 2014-15
- more about what counts as a reasonable excuse if you don’t report on time
- updated guidance for employers exempt from filing or unable to file online
Where payment information is not received as expected on an FPS, or you haven’t told HMRC that no employees have been paid in a tax period by sending an EPS, automatic late filing penalties will apply. Note that these rules apply to each PAYE scheme, rather than each employer. So, if you operate more than one PAYE scheme you need to make sure that the FPS for each individual PAYE scheme reference is submitted on time or, where there were no payments made to any employees for a particular scheme for a tax period, make sure that you told HMRC by sending an EPS.
Similarly, late payment penalties will be charged in-year on late payments due from employers for the tax year 2014/15 onward.