Open all Hours

As well as your Employer Annual Return, you can send employee starter and leaver information to us online (and similar pension information) at whichever hour of the day or night suits you. Some payroll software can even be programmed to send forms online outside office hours (when it might be quicker because there are fewer transmissions). Ask your software provider if they offer this feature.

All employers and pension providers are going to have to send in-year starter and leaver forms online before too long. If you have 50 or more employees, you must send in-year starter and leaver information online from April 2009. If you have fewer than 50 employees, your deadline is 2011.

The deadlines may seem a long way off. But we recommend that you do not wait until 2009 or 2011 before you start sending in-year forms online. We suggest that you start sending in-year information online as soon as you can, so you are sure your internal processes are sorted and tested by the time this becomes compulsory. Although we will still process in-year information sent on paper, we may charge penalties if you do not send your information online when you should.

If you send us information online you must not send it on paper as well. And you must not send electronic copies of forms that you have already sent us on paper.

We are getting ready, too, by consulting with software developers and employer and agent representatives about the move to in-year filing and by preparing to enhance our IT systems, and the processes which support our PAYE computer systems, from next year.

Remember, if you want to start sending in-year information online now, you can. You don’t have to wait until 2009 or 2011. Doing it online cuts out postal delays and the time it takes for us to process paper forms manually. This means more up to date records and tax codes for your employees, often resulting in fewer queries for you to handle.

Getting Help

Before you can file online, you need to register with us. Our Team of online filing “recruiters” have developed a range of products to help you. We can support you over the phone, or in workshops and presentations, and can take you through the registration process step-by-step. And after you have registered, we can give you all the help you may need to send your forms online.

Remember – if you have fewer than 50 employees, you will get £100 tax-free if you send your 2007-08 Employer Annual Return online

Changes from April 2008

There are changes coming in from April 2008 which mean you will have to do some things differently. You need to start gearing up for them now.

Changes from April 2009

From April 2009 you will have to enter your employees’ dates of birth and gender on all P45s and P46s.

PAYE improvements will mean fewer enquiries

As part of our ongoing improvements to our internal processes and customer service, next year we plan to move all our PAYE records (currently held on 12 regional databases) onto one computer system. The changes will reduce the number of times we have to contact you for more information and means that our staff will have access to all of an employee’s pay, tax, National Insurance, benefits and pension information in one place. The PAYE rules are not changing nor is the data we hold.