PAYE Online for Employers - Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

 

Frequently Asked Questions: Processing & Technical Matters

Contents

Q. Can payroll bureaux use their own unique identifier for an employee or does HM Revenue & Customs insist on the Works Number Update (WNU) being the employer number in all cases?

A. The WN field can be used to carry both an employee number allocated by the employer, and a number that is allocated by the bureau to identify the employer. It is an alphanumeric field with a maximum length of 17.

The WN will be provided by HM Revenue & Customs on Tax code changes P6/P9s sent to the employer.

Q. What happens when a WNU is issued for a new employee prior to a P45 (3) or a P46 (starter forms) being received by HM Revenue & Customs?

A. In this case, the record would appear on HM Revenue & Customs's exception report, which is forwarded to the employer.

A starter form is always needed before a WNU. However, it does not need to have a works number as this can be updated later.

Q. Is it appropriate for an employer to send a WNU, if the National Insurance Number (NINO) is not known for that employee?

A. A WNU should exclude employees where the NINO is unknown. HM Revenue & Customs cannot trace a record without the NINO and as a result the employee's record cannot be updated.

Q. Can a WNU be used when an employee has changed Tax Office and PAYE reference, but who stays within the same organisation?

A. No. This is not the appropriate use for the Works Number Update message.
The procedure would be for the organisation to send a 'list' of the affected employees in to the new Tax Office.

However, where one company takes over another one and the tax records are not merged, then a P45(1) is issued followed by a P45(3) to show the correct movement.

Q. Why not include the address as a match in the WNU?

A. There would be no value in including the address to use as a match, because the address on both systems would need to be exactly the same.

For example, if the address held by the employer was 'Willow Rd', but the address held by the National Tracing System (NTS) was 'Willow Road', it would be classed as a mismatch.

The current Inland Revenue approach is to update the address when a notification is received from the employee, or the employer. This is to ensure that HM Revenue & Customs holds the most current address.

Q. Why is the P14 Magnetic Media specification for a Tax Code defined as 7 characters, when it is specified as 6 characters in the Message Implementation Guidelines (MIG) document? Does this mean another change to the MIG is expected?

A. The P14 magnetic tape specification was increased to 7 characters, after cases of 7 character Tax Codes were found to exist.

In the event that there are Tax Codes of 7 characters being used these should not be sent using EDIFACT. These cases can only be dealt with manually by HM Revenue & Customs .

HM Revenue & Customs PAYE computer systems only contain 6 characters, and there are no plans for this to increase. Therefore, no change to the MIG is expected.

The P14 is captured in the 'CONTRB' message.

For further information refer to EB5 (PAYE) - Message Implementation Guidelines document.

Q. What is the Tax Code field length and where is it held?

A. The tax codes must be no longer than 6 characters. There must be no leading zeros or spaces (with the exception of the '0T' Tax Code, where the '0' precedes the 'T' as part of the code value) and no trailing spaces.

The Tax Code is held within the ALC segment of both the 'MOVDED' and 'CONTRB' messages.

For further information refer to EB5 (PAYE) - Message Implementation Guidelines document.

Q. Where is the Scottish Variable Rate (SVR) Indicator held?

A. The SVR Indicator is held within the ATT segment associated with the ALC segment of the 'MOVDED' message.

For further information refer to EB5 (PAYE) - Message Implementation Guidelines document.

Q. Are the bulk code changes (P7X and P9X) included in the scope of EDI?

A. No. P7X and P9X bulk code changes guidance notes are not included in the scope of online filing for PAYE. These forms will continue to be issued on paper.

Q. Will HM Revenue & Customs National Insurance Contributions Office (NICO) issue microfiche copies of the P14 (formerly the P35 (CS)) back to the employer?

A. Yes. If the employer has completed the appropriate section on the registration form CA8269, NICO at Longbenton, Newcastle will issue P14 microfiche as an alternative to paper.

Q. Can payroll bureaux batch P14s or will they have to submit a separate file for each employer? If batches are allowed how will the different employers be identified?

A. An EDI file can contain many 'batches' of P14s - one for each employer. See question 'What is a file?'

The EDI 'CONTRB' message is used to contain a batch of P14s.
See questions 'What is an EDI interchange?' and 'What is an EDI message?'

Q. Can the P14 document be used to replace the P35 document?

A. The P14 paper document replaces the need for the P35 (CS), which is the continuation sheet showing line by line items for each employee. It is specified in the MIG as the 'CONTRB' message, which is designed for contribution type EDI messages.

However, it does not replace the P35 (MT), which is a summary paper document. This is a signed declaration, which is still legally required.

From April 2001 EDI was extended with the introduction of the online P35. The P35 is specified in the EB5 PAYE MIG as the DECLAR message.

Q. What is an EDI interchange?

A. An EDI interchange (UNB-UNZ) is an online envelope, and contains the addressing information of the sender and receiver.

A single EDI interchange may contain one or more EDI messages.

For example, an interchange can contain one EDI message, such as:

  • a 'MOVDED' for Tax District 1 and PAYE reference 1

Or alternatively, an interchange can contain many EDI messages, such as:

  • a 'CONTRB' for Tax District 1 and PAYE reference 1
  • a 'CONTRB' for Tax District 1 and PAYE reference 2
  • a 'CONTRB' for Tax District 2 and PAYE reference 3

The way in which an interchange is applied is the choice of the Trading Partner to suit their own administration purposes.

For further information refer to EB5 (PAYE) - Message Implementation Guidelines document.

Q. In terms of exchanging information online, what is a file?

A. For the purpose of EDI, a file is the mechanism in which data is enveloped together and transmitted from a sender to a receiver across a telecommunication link, such as a VAN, ISDN or X.400.
A file contains one or more EDI interchanges.

For further information refer to EB5 (PAYE) - Message Implementation Guidelines document.

Q. What is a Message Implementation Guide (MIG)?

A. A MIG provides both the Generic Flat File formats and the EDIFACT format of the paper PAYE documents.
For further information refer to EB5 (PAYE) - Message Implementation Guidelines document.

Q. What is the limit on the cash fields for ex-employees, as this is not included in the new MIG?

A. All monetary values must be provided in pence even when the usual business requirement is for the whole pound (£), e.g. the value £123456 must be presented as 12345600 within the MOA segment.
The limit on the number of pence will be included as part of the Tax Code list in the MIG, as and when the information becomes available.

For further information refer to EB5 (PAYE) - Message Implementation Guidelines document.

Q. What is an EDI message?

A. Each EDI message (EDIFACT UNH-UNT or 4 star headed GFF message) contains information for only one single employer, Tax District (and Bureau), but may contain the equivalent to paper PAYE documents for one or more employees.
For further information refer to EB5 (PAYE) - Message Implementation Guidelines document.

Q. What actions should a bureau take when adding or removing an employer from the scheme or their portfolio?

A. Notify HM Revenue & Customs Online Services.

 
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