Still not filing online?

It’s really very simple, saves time and is a more secure way of sending information than by post. That is why more employers are filing their Employer Annual Returns and in-year employee starter and leaver forms online.

There are a variety of ways you can send online information to us, so you can choose the most efficient way for your business:

• HMRC’s free Online Return and Forms – PAYE product
• an agent or payroll bureau who can file online for you
• commercial payroll software that sends forms which meet HMRC’s Quality Standard
• Electronic Data Interchange (for employers with very high volumes of PAYE forms).

You can mix and match these options. So, for example, you can send P45s via the Internet using commercial payroll software or via HMRC’s Online Returns and Forms – PAYE Product, while the Employer Annual Return could be sent via an agent.

Benefits:

• A 24 hour, 365 days a year online filing service.
• Speedier completion and accuracy of your forms, as errors are identified quickly by online.
• Quality checks. Also you get prompt acknowledgement that we have got your forms safely.
• Forms sent online mean employees get the right tax code and pay the right amount of tax sooner, so you are likely to get fewer enquiries from your employees about their tax.
• It is more secure than by post because everything you send to us online is encrypted.

If you have 50 or more employees, you already have to file your Employer Annual Return (form P35 and P14s) online.

From 6 April 2009 you will also have to send your employee starter and leaver information online.

If you are a small employer (fewer than 50 employees) and choose to file online now you will be ready for April 2010 when, under Government proposals, you will have to file your Employer Annual Return online and April 2011, when you are likely to have to start sending in-year starter and leaver information online.

We are introducing some new forms which must be used from 6 April 2009:

• New look P45
• P46 (Pen)
• P46(Expat)

Online quality checks

On 6 April 2008 we introduced quality checks for online submissions of starter and leaver information on forms P45 and P46. Any in-year forms you send us that do not meet our quality checks will be sent back to you. When we reject a form, we will tell you what you need to do to put it right.

Additionally, from 6 April 2009 all P45s, P46s and pension information sent to us must include date of birth and gender details.

So, after that we will only accept forms with omitted date of birth or gender information if they were issued before 6 April 2009.

If you use a commercial payroll software package you must make sure that it includes the latest quality checks. Talk to your software provider if you are not sure.

To help you make sure that what you send to us passes our quality checks, you can view our list of common errors where you will find the answers to lots of questions about the practical operation of PAYE.

Getting started

If you have not filed online before using our free Online Return and Forms - PAYE product, commercial payroll software or Electronic Data Interchange you will need to register and activate your account before you can send and receive PAYE information online. This is a simple five step process. We also have an online demo for registering for our online services.

Notification of National Insurance numbers

Later this year, we will be bringing in a new system to process taxpayer information, but the PAYE rules themselves are not changing. The new system, as well as bringing more automation to most PAYE processes, will also see the creation of a single PAYE record for each employee.

It means that our staff will have access to all of an employee’s pay, tax, National Insurance and pension information in one place, so we will be able to deal with employees’ enquiries more quickly and completely.

To prepare for this, we are cross-checking each person’s PAYE details held on the current PAYE processing system against our National Insurance database, to make sure all information held in these two systems is included in the new single record.

As we do so, where we find a person’s National Insurance number - or if we find that you are using the wrong one - we will send you a form P46-5T telling you the correct number. You must use this number in all future dealings with us about that individual. We told you about this in the February 2008 edition of the Bulletin and we are sorry for the delay.

We will be sending these notices on paper, and we apologise that some will reach you when you are gearing-up for the tax year end. You do not have to deal with the notices straight away, but please update your employee records as soon as you can.

We told you about this in the February 2008 edition of the Bulletin and we are sorry for the delay.