Relaxed PAYE late filing penalties

HMRC will not impose PAYE filing penalties for short delays

All UK employers are required to report wage payments as Real Time Information (RTI) to HMRC.  Until now this has meant that you need to submit your payroll information to HMRC on or before the date you pay your employees.  However HMRC announced that they have relaxed PAYE late filing penalties and will:

• be reviewed on a risk-assessed basis rather than be issued automatically
• not be imposed where the delay is 3 days or less

Any employer that has received an in-year late filing penalty for the period 6 October 2014 to 5 January 2015 and was 3 days late or less, should appeal online by completing the “Other” box and add “Return filed within 3 days”.

Don’t rely on relaxed PAYE late filing penalties!

Although it might be tempting to think the new relaxed PAYE filing penalties buy you time, an extra 3 days is not going to help you very much.  With the introduction of Pension Auto Enrolment for all UK employers over the next couple of years it has never been more important to get your payroll processes right.  If you do your own payroll, now is the time to consider outsourcing to a payroll bureau like Alterledger.  Alternatively review your payroll software now to ensure that everything is working smoothly before the new payroll year starts on 6th April 2015.