HM Revenue and Customs have announced they’re staggering the start of the penalty regime under Real Time Information (RTI). Originally, “in year” penalties, interest for late filing and late payments were all meant to be introduced at the start of the new tax year in April. However, the new timetable is as follows:
- Interest on payments of PAYE/NIC not made by the due date will start in April 2014
- Automatic penalties for the late filing of RTI Returns will start in October 2014
- Automatic penalties on payments of PAYE/NIC not made by the due date will start in April 2015
These changes will mean that employers who bring their submissions up to date on or before 5th October 2014 will not face any penalties.
In announcing these changes HMRC’s Director General, Ruth Owen, said “The introduction of RTI is going extremely well for the majority of employers but there are still some who need a bit more time to adapt fully to the changes.” This appears at first to be a most unusual appreciation by HMRC of the difficulties faced by many people in understanding the complexity of the tax regulations. That is, until you know there was a huge outcry from taxpayer’s representatives a few days earlier when HMRC sent out hundreds of incorrect “no-filing” notices. Refusing to accept they are themselves facing difficulties, and passing the buck instead onto the taxpayers, is much more typical HMRC behaviour.