Employer Annual Returns

6.3 Online filing using our free Online Return and Forms - PAYE

If you do not already use payroll software, one way to file online is to use our free Online Return and Forms - PAYE product. This is mainly suited to small employers.

To use Online Return and Forms - PAYE you must first register for the Internet service. (See 'Registering for PAYE Online for Employers'.)

The Online Return and Forms - PAYE service has a database that you can use to build up personal information for all your employees (for example, things like address and National Insurance number). These details will then be transferred automatically on any online form that you send us for your employee (like a P45(1)). You do not need to build up a database if you are only using Online Return and Forms - PAYE to send your form P35.

At the end of the tax year, you can use these personal details to complete your P14s, along with the tax and National Insurance information from your other records. You can produce a P35 from all the completed P14s.

Online Return and Forms - PAYE does not calculate pay and tax. But you can use the electronic calculators on your Employer CD-ROM to help you work out things like tax, National Insurance, student loans and Statutory Payments, and fill in forms, including the P11D (Return of expenses and benefits). The Employer CD-ROM is packed with everything you need to help you do your payroll, including teach-yourself sections, and guidance.

If you choose to use Online Return and Forms - PAYE, we will store the data you have entered for seven years, so that you can easily see all previous years' information. You can print all of this out if you want to.

We will send you an e-mail acknowledgment for every submission you make using Online Return and forms ' PAYE during the tax year (for example, whenever you send us a form P45(1) when an employee leaves you, or a form P46 for a new employee).