PAYE64001 - employment maintenance: employment history: introduction

When an employee starts or leaves employment the details about the changed employment circumstances are usually recorded on a form P45. The appropriate parts of the P45 are sent to the Processing Office by the old and new employer either on paper or online. The information from the appropriate parts of the P45 is recorded on the taxpayer record using one of the Functions MS, ML or MA.

Where this process if followed correctly

• A record of the changes applied to the taxpayer’s employment history is maintained and this information is available for you to view using Function MR
• The taxpayer has the correct amount of tax deducted by the operation of a cumulative code number

There are occasions when this process breaks down and there is no P45 available. In these circumstances the new employer

• Notifies the Processing Office about the new or changed employment using form P46

And usually

• Operates an emergency code on a Week 1 or month 1 basis

Where this happens you will need to restore a cumulative code as soon as possible. To do this, you will need to

• Review the previous employment details held on record for a specific tax year
• Issue a form P91 to determine the taxpayer’s activities for any unaccounted for periods
• Obtain the pay and tax details for any previously unknown employments

On receipt of this information you will need to

• Use Function MR to update the taxpayer’s record to

Or

• Notify the new employer of the correct code number to be operated and any previous pay and tax details so that the correct operation of PAYE can be resumed

Wider Access

There will be occasions when as a user of COP functions you view records held by another office using Function BG. If you do so, you may be asked what activity you were pursuing at the time. It may be advisable to keep a record of these accesses.

To conform to legislation, HMRC must ensure that computer are not being used unless there is a legitimate business need. This applies equally to viewing records as it does to updating them. An audit trail is created each time a user accesses a record and any unauthorised or inappropriate accesses will be considered for action under the Department's Conduct and Discipline rules, and may also constitute a criminal offence.