PAYE: 2005-06 penalty update

We issued penalty notices dated 12 March where there was an outstanding PAYE Employer Annual Return (P14s and P35) or Contractor Return (CIS36) for 2005-06. If you have received a penalty notice, you must send your return as soon as possible. You must contact your HMRC Office if you do not need to send a return for 2005-06.

If you think the penalty is wrong, you must appeal in writing to your HMRC office explaining why as soon as you can.

We are aware of a number of cases where a ‘test’ return was sent but not followed up with the actual return. That may be because one of the messages sent at the time gave the impression that we had received your actual Return.

We are sorry that this message caused confusion. We cannot readily identify these cases, so if you are affected, we must ask you to appeal against the penalty in writing and send us your actual return (sending it online if they have 50 or more employees) in support of your appeal as soon as possible. In these circumstances we expect to discharge the penalty once we have received and processed your actual return.

Recognising some of the particular difficulties that have emerged as a result of the issues above, we are extending the appeal period for these penalties to the end of April 2007.