News

Electronic prompt issued from HMRC to help employers with PAYE
08 January 2014

A friendly online reminder designed to help employers keep up to date with their Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) has been introduced by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). The electronic message informs the employer that they have not sent one or more of the Full Payment Submissions (FPS) that were expected for the last month. Acting as a prompt, it plainly states that an FPS is due each time their employees are paid.

All of the electronic messages are aimed at helping employers bring their PAYE up to date and will remind employers that:

• From April 2014, if they do not pay or report on time, they may incur penalties in-year rather than incurring them after the end of the year as it stands now
• If they had no PAYE payment to make because they did not pay any employees during a particular period, they should let HMRC know by sending an Employer Payment Summary (EPS).

HMRC intend on releasing these messages gradually before a full launch (date to be confirmed), which will highlight any inefficiency issues with the system.

A non-filing message may appear on an employer’s system even if they have filed on time. This could be due to one of two reasons:

• When an FPS has been sent in advance for this tax year – for example, a sole director/employee planning to take the same earnings each month may have submitted 12 FPS in April for the full year
• Where HMRC has received an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) before 14 October 2013 that reports a ‘period for inactivity’ – for example, if an employer has sent an EPS in August 2013 to report a period of inactivity from September 2013 to February 2014.

In either instance, if an employer receives a non-filing message they do not need to take any further action.

The message will not always be sent out to employers in every occurrence of late filing or failure to file; which means employers do not need to contact HMRC if they believe a message is due for them.

HMRC said: “Although there are no in-year penalties for late filing for the current tax year, employers are reminded that they are liable to penalties if they do not report the final payments made to their employees for 2013-14 by 19 May 2014.”

Please see HMRC's guidance on 'What happens if you don't report payroll information on time':
Link: What happens if you don't report payroll information on time

For more information regarding PAYE and PAYE Real Time, visit: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payerti/index.htm