HMRC Clamp Down on Late Reporting of Payroll Information

HMRC have been fining people for the late reporting of payroll information since 2014, but now HMRC has really ramped up the rate in which they are issuing fines. It is, therefore, more crucial than ever, that you file your payroll information on time.

According to HMRC, you can get a penalty if:

• your Full Payment Submission(FPS) was late
• you didn’t send the expected number of FPSs
• you didn’t send an Employer Payment Summary(EPS) when you didn’t pay any employees in a tax month

To avoid receiving a penalty, it is vital that you are aware of what your pay date is and whether it’s correct. You can find your pay date on any of your employee’s payslips or on your payroll summary.

If you are a client of ours and are paying staff before sending us the payroll information, you could end up being liable for a fine.

However, HMRC won’t charge a penalty if:

• your FPS is late but all reported payments on the FPS are within 3 days of your employees’ payday (this applies from 6 March 2015 to 5 April 2018) however employers who persistently file after the payment date but within 3 days may be contacted or considered for a penalty
• you’re a new employer and you sent your first FPS within 30 days of paying an employee
• it’s your first failure in the tax year to send a report on time (this doesn’t apply to employers who register with HMRC as an annual scheme)

How much you are charged depends on how many employees you have. Fines are quite severe, with fines starting from £100.

We advise all our payroll clients to get their information into us before their pay date to avoid these fines. One way we could help you to ensure you always file your information on time is to change your pay date to one more suitable for you.

If you have any questions about anything mentioned in this blog, then please do hesitate to get in touch with our payroll department by emailing payroll@astonshaw.co.uk or by calling 01603 616300.