RTI penalties

Newsletter issue - March 2015.

Last month we warned you about the penalties coming into effect for late filed RTI reports. The good news is that HMRC are cutting employers just a little slack, and will now allow three extra days in which to submit the full payment submission (FPS) report.

Normally the FPS must be submitted on or before the day the employees are paid, but there are some circumstances in which the FPS can be submitted up to 7 or 14 days later. For example, the FPS can be submitted within 7 days of the pay day if the employees' pay can't be calculated until the end of their shift, such as for harvest workers.

If you have already received a late filing penalty notice for a period since 6 October 2014, you can ask for the penalty to be removed. Do this by logging an appeal via the online appeals system. Complete the "other" reason box with the statement "return filed within 3 days", and the penalty should be cancelled. We can do this for you if you send us a copy of the penalty notice.

Penalties for late paid PAYE were also due to be applied automatically from 6 April 2015. However, HMRC is now going to assess the reason for the apparent late payment of PAYE before sending out a penalty notice.

We hope this means HMRC will only issue a late payment penalty when it is clear that PAYE was deliberately paid late. This should avoid penalties being issued for disputed amounts that appear on your business tax dashboard (online accounts) with HMRC. If your online account shows you owe an odd amount of PAYE please let us know without delay.