Guidance

Payroll information to report to HMRC

Find out what to put in your Full Payment Submission (FPS) and Employer Payment Summary (EPS) if you're paying employees through PAYE.

As an employer running payroll, you need to report your employee’s pay, any payrolled benefits, and deductions in a Full Payment Submission (FPS) on or before their payday (unless an exception applies).

You will also need to send an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) by the 19th of the following tax month for HMRC to apply any reduction (for example, statutory pay) on what you’ll owe from your FPS.

If you’ve not paid any employees in a tax month, send an EPS instead of a FPS.

Your payroll software may have different names for the fields below.

Employer information

Report these in every FPS and EPS.

Field Description
HMRC office number The first part of your employer PAYE reference (3 digits) — this is on the letter HMRC sent you when you registered as an employer. You can also find it on P6 or P9 coding notices
Employer PAYE reference The second part of your employer PAYE reference (the letters and numbers after the slash)
Accounts Office reference Format ‘123PA00012345’ — you’ll get this from HMRC after you’ve registered as an employer. It’s available online if you pay electronically or via your payment booklet P30BC if you do not
Related tax year The Income Tax year that this report relates to

Include these if they apply to your business.

Field Description
Employer’s Contracted Out Number (ECON) Get this from your contracting-out certificate or pension scheme administrator
SA UTR Your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) for Self Assessment (SA) if you’re a sole trader, or the partnership UTR if you’re a partnership
COTAX reference Your Corporation Tax reference, if you’re a limited company. If you have more than one, enter the reference for the company responsible for employment contracts

Employee information

Report this information in a FPS every time you pay an employee.

Field Description
National Insurance number The employee’s National Insurance number. Leave blank if you do not know it, but make sure you enter their address
Title
Surname or family name
Forename or given name
Second forename or given name
Initials Only needed if you do not know their full forename(s)
Date of birth
Gender
Address Enter their address if they’re a new employee, you do not know their National Insurance number or the employee’s address has changed
UK postcode It is important that if you enter your employee’s post code, you ensure that it is correct. If you enter an incorrect post code this could result in the employee’s address being changed on our systems leading to correspondence being issued to the wrong address.
Foreign country Only enter their country of residence if they live outside the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man. Also complete the ‘Address’ field
Payroll ID You can assign payroll IDs to your employees. The ID must be unique. Use a different one if you re-employ someone (if you do this within the same tax year restart their year-to-date information from ‘£0.00’) or have an employee who has more than one job in the same PAYE scheme. If you reuse a previous payroll ID you’ll create a duplicate record and report payroll incorrectly
Payroll ID changed indicator Only set the payroll ID changed indicator when reporting payroll ID changes and ensure both the ‘OLD’ and ‘NEW’ payroll ID is entered. You should not include the original start date. Do not put ‘Yes’ if you used a different payroll ID when you re-employed someone who left in the same tax year. You should ensure that the year to date financial data cumulates from that on the previous submission.
Old payroll ID for this employment Only enter their old ID if it’s changed since your last FPS. You must not complete this if you are re-employing someone. If you do not supply it, and they have more than one job in your PAYE scheme, your PAYE bill may be calculated incorrectly
Irregular payment pattern indicator Only put ‘Yes’ if the employee is not being paid regularly (for example, they’re a casual employee or on long-term sick leave) or if you’re not going to pay them for 3 months or more

Pay and deductions

Report information about each employee’s pay and deductions in a FPS.

Pay and deductions made this period

Field Description
Taxable pay The total pay to the employee that is taxable (even if tax is not due) in this period, including any benefits in kind which you have taxed via the payroll
Tax deducted or refunded
Student Loan repayment recovered
Postgraduate Loan repayment recovered
Pay after statutory deductions Their net pay after you’ve deducted tax, National Insurance contributions and Student Loan repayments. Do not include payments you’re including in ‘Non-tax or National Insurance contribution payment’
Deductions from net pay Any other deductions you’ve taken for example, child maintenance payments (do not include tax, National Insurance contributions and Student Loan repayments)
On strike Only put ‘Yes’ if you reduced your employee’s pay because they were on strike
Non-tax or National Insurance contribution payment Any payment made to the employee that is not subject to PAYE tax or National Insurance contributions that has been sent with the ‘salary’ payment for this period
Student Loan Plan type Select the student loan plan type that your employee is on. If you do not know, your employee should check with Student Loans Company, otherwise default to plan type 1 until you receive a student loan start notice (SL1)

Year to date totals

Field name Description
Taxable pay to date The total taxable pay to date in this employment only, including any benefits that have been taxed through the payroll, including this payment
Total tax to date
Total Student Loan repayment recovered to date
Total Postgraduate Loan repayment recovered to date

If you’ve employed the same person more than once in a tax year, report for their current employment only.

Pension deductions

Field Description
Employee pension contributions paid under ‘net pay arrangements’ Pension contributions paid under ‘net pay arrangements’ in this pay period
Employee pension contributions not paid under a ‘net pay arrangement’ Contributions taken from their pay after deducting tax and National Insurance contributions in this period
Employee pension contributions paid under ‘net pay arrangements’ year to date The amount of pension contributions your employee paid under the ‘net pay arrangements’, to date, in this employment, within the tax year
Employee pension contributions not paid under a ‘net pay arrangement’ year to date The amount of pension contributions that are not paid under the ‘net pay arrangements’, to date, in this employment, within the tax year

Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental pay

Field Description
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) year to date
Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) year to date
Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) year to date
Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) year to date
ShPP: Partner surname or family name Only put this when you report ShPP for the first time for this employee
ShPP: Partner forename or given name Only put this when you report ShPP for the first time for this employee
ShPP: Partner second forename or given name Only put this when you report ShPP for the first time for this employee
ShPP: Partner National Insurance number Only put this when you report ShPP for the first time for this employee

If you pay benefits through payroll

Enter this information if you’ve agreed with HMRC to tax benefits through payroll, instead of reporting in the normal way.

Field Description
Items subject to Class 1 National Insurance only
Benefits this period taxed via payroll Also include this in ‘Taxable pay in this period’
Benefits taxed via payroll year to date

Employee pay information

Report details of each payment you make an employee in a FPS.

Field name Description
Employee tax code
Employee tax code: Week 1/Month 1 indicator Only put ‘Yes’ if their tax code has ‘W1’ or ‘M1’ at the end
Employee hours normally worked Put ‘A’ if less than 16 hours, ‘B’ if 16 to 23.99 hours, ‘C’ if 24 to 29.99 hours, or ‘D’ if 30 hours or more. Put ‘E’ if you do not pay your employee regularly or you pay them a workplace pension or annuity
Pay frequency Put ‘W1’ if weekly, ‘W2’ if fortnightly, ‘W4’ if every 4 weeks, ‘M1’ if monthly, ‘M3’ if quarterly, ‘M6’ if twice a year, ‘MA’ if annually, ‘IO’ if a one-off payment, or ‘IR’ if you pay your employee irregularly
Payment date The date you paid them, not the date you run your payroll. Use the normal payday if it falls on a non-banking day
Tax week number The week you paid them if you pay them weekly, fortnightly or every 4 weeks
Tax month number The month you paid them if you pay them monthly, quarterly, twice a year or annually
Number of earnings periods covered by payment
Bacs hash code Only put this if you’re paying them through Bacs using your own Service User Number (SUN) — there is no longer a requirement to complete this, but it can still be reported
Aggregated earnings indicator Only put ‘Yes’ if you’ve added the earnings from more than one job to work out their National Insurance

Late reporting reason

If you send a FPS after your employee’s payday, let HMRC know why in the ‘Late reporting reason’ field.

HMRC code Situation When to report
G You have a reasonable excuse As soon as possible
G You are paying foreign tax on your employee’s behalf and it is taking longer than usual to calculate the PAYE and National Insurance contributions on that tax As soon as possible and no later than one month after usual reporting date — select ‘Late reporting reason’ code G
H You correct an earlier payroll report On your next regular FPS, or an additional FPS, report the correct payment details. Send by the 19th of the tax month after your original FPS for HMRC to show the correction in that month’s PAYE bill
F You have an employee who’s either paid less than £123 a week or has worked with you for less than a week Within 7 days of paying your employee
D You pay your employee an expense or benefit where you must pay National Insurance contributions, but not Income Tax, through payroll. This depends on the benefit Within 14 days of the end of the tax month
F You pay your employee based on their work on the day (for example, harvest workers paid based on how much they pick) Within 7 days of paying your employee
A You’re an overseas employer paying an expat employee, or you pay them through a third party By the 19th of the tax month after making the payment
B You pay your employee in shares at less than market value Usually by the 19th of the tax month of giving them the shares — contact HMRC for complex situations
C You make any other non-cash payment (for example, vouchers or credit tokens) to your employee By the 19th of the tax month after making the payment

If HMRC disagrees or you do not send a FPS or EPS, they may send you a filing notice through PAYE Online or your commercial payroll software package. Penalties for late reporting started from 6 October 2014.

National Insurance

Include information about National Insurance in your FPS when you pay an employee £123 or more a week.

For employees paid less, you only need to include this information if you’re not required to report their earnings for tax (for example, you’re an overseas employer that does not need to pay tax in the UK).

Field Description
National Insurance category letter Your employee’s National Insurance category letter. You can use up to 4 for each payment
Gross earnings for National Insurance contributions in this period The total pay that’s subject to National Insurance contributions this period — usually all payments £123 a week or over. Also include pay below this if you’re not required to report it for tax
Gross earnings for National Insurance contributions year to date The total pay subject to National Insurance contributions this tax year
Earnings at the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) year to date The total pay at £123 a week (£533 a month) or over. Do not include any smaller payments, even if you’re not required to report it for tax
Earnings above LEL up to and including the Primary Threshold (PT) year to date The total pay between £123 and £242 a week, or £533 and £1048 a month
Earnings above the PT, up to and including the Upper Earnings Limit (UEL) year to date The total pay between £242 and £967 a week, or £1048 and £4189 a month
Employee contributions payable this period The primary contributions (employee’s National Insurance contributions) deducted from your employee’s pay this period.
If you do not pay an employee in a pay period enter 0.00
Employee contributions payable year to date The total primary contributions (employee’s National Insurance contributions) deducted from your employee’s pay.
If you do not pay an employee in a pay period put the same figure as on your last FPS
Total of employer’s contributions payable in this pay period The secondary contributions (employer’s National Insurance contributions) you need to pay this period.
If you do not pay an employee in a pay period enter 0.00
Total of employer’s contributions payable year to date The total secondary contributions (employer’s National Insurance contributions).
If you do not pay an employee in a pay period put the same figure as on your last FPS
Scheme Contracted Out Number (SCON) Only put this if you run a contracted-out workplace pension scheme and your employee’s National Insurance category letter is D, E, I, K, L, N, O or V. You can find your SCON on your contracting-out certificate or from your pension provider

Report this National Insurance information when you pay a director.

Field Description
Director’s National Insurance contribution calculation method Put ‘AN’ if you’re using the standard annual method of work out the director’s National Insurance contributions, or ‘AL’ if you’re using the alternative method
Week of director’s appointment Put the tax week the director was appointed

EPS: what to report

Send an EPS by the 19th to claim any reduction on what you’ll owe HMRC (for example, statutory pay) from your FPS sent the previous tax month. If you’ve not paid any employees in a tax month, send an EPS instead of an FPS.

Include your employer information as well as the information below.

Reclaiming statutory pay for parents and Construction Industry Scheme deductions

Fill in these fields in your EPS if you:

If you run more than one payroll under the same PAYE employer reference, include the total amount of reductions for all those payrolls.

Field Description
Tax month Put which tax month the EPS credit is for
SMP reclaimed this tax year Put how much statutory maternity payment you’ve claimed
SMP National Insurance contribution compensation recovered this tax year Put how much National Insurance contributions compensation you’ve recovered through Small Employers’ Relief
SPP reclaimed this tax year Put how much statutory paternity payment you’ve reclaimed
SPP National Insurance contribution compensation recovered this tax year Put how much compensation you’ve recovered through Small Employers’ Relief
SAP reclaimed this tax year Put how much statutory adoption payment you’ve reclaimed
SAP National Insurance contribution compensation recovered this tax year Put how much National Insurance contributions compensation you’ve reclaimed through Small Employers’ Relief
ShPP reclaimed this tax year Put how much ShPP you’ve reclaimed this tax year
ShPP recovered this tax year’ Put how much National Insurance contributions compensation you’ve recovered through Small Employers’ Relief
CIS deductions suffered If you’re a limited company that has had CIS deductions made from payments received for work in the construction industry, enter the total amount of CIS deductions suffered year to date

Bank details

Include details of the bank you want HMRC to pay into if you’re overpaid or you’ve reclaimed any statutory maternity, paternity or adoption pay or CIS deductions.

Field Description
Name of account holder
Account number
Branch sort code
Building society reference If applicable

You did not pay any employees in a period

Send an EPS with the following information by the 19th after the tax month you did not pay any employees. The tax month starts on the 6th. Do not send an FPS.

Field Description
No payment for period Put ‘Yes’ to tell HMRC you did not pay any employees
No payment dates from Put the 6th of the first month where you did not pay any employees
No payment dates to Put the 5th of the last month where you did not pay any employees
Period of inactivity from Tell HMRC in advance if you will not be paying any employees for a minimum period of one month, and a maximum of 12 months. Put the 6th of the first month where you will not pay employees — you can only notify from the beginning of the next tax month
Period of inactivity to Put the 5th of the last month where you will not pay any employees

Claim Employment Allowance

You could get up to £5,000 a year off your National Insurance if you claim Employment Allowance.

Field Description
Employment Allowance indicator Put ‘Yes’ to claim the allowance. This is your declaration that you’ve checked your eligibility to receive Employment Allowance.

If you do not check your eligibility or you answer incorrectly you may have to repay any Employment Allowance you have received

Employment allowance must be claimed each tax year. The claim will be retained for the full tax year and the following year you’ll need to submit a new claim.

Only select ‘No’ if you are not eligible to claim or want to withdraw a claim.

If your claim is rejected you’ll receive a Generic Notification Service (GNS) message to advise you.

When claiming Employment Allowance you must provide your business sector on your EPS if your business is undertaking ‘economic activity’. If you’re involved in economic activity, which means you are putting goods or services on a market, de minimis state aid rules will apply to you in relation to the allowance and your business sector(s) is needed as part of your claim.

Field Description
Employer is in the agriculture sector Select this field if you’re involved in economic activity and your business is in the agriculture sector.
Employer is in the fisheries and aquaculture sector Select this field if you’re involved in economic activity and your business is in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
Employer is in the road transport sector Select this field if you’re involved in economic activity and your business is in the road transport sector.
Employer is in the industrial/other sector This sector should be selected if your business is undertaking economic activity and is not within the agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture or road transport sectors.

Examples of businesses choosing this option could be services, utilities, merchandising, manufacturing. Businesses such as a hairdressers or restaurant would come under this sector as they offer goods and services.

Select this field if you’re involved in economic activity and your business is in the industrial/other sector.
State aid rules do not apply to the employer This should only be chosen when a business does not undertake any economic activity.

For example, some charities, community amateur sports clubs or a person employing someone to provide personal care may not be engaging in economic activity and therefore fall outside of de minimis State aid rules. An example of this could be a small educational charity employing staff to teach English as a second language at no cost in the local community.

These employers are still eligible for the allowance but it will not be classed as a de minimis State aid in these circumstances.

Report Apprenticeship Levy

From April 2017, employers who have an annual pay bill greater than £3 million, or who are connected to other employers by virtue of the connected companies or connected charities rules, which in total have an annual pay bill of more than £3 million, need to tell HMRC about their Apprenticeship Levy.

Field Description
Tax year Put the tax year to which the return of the Apprenticeship Levy relates
Employer’s HMRC office number
Employer‘s PAYE reference Put the PAYE reference to which the return of the Apprenticeship Levy relates
Employer’s accounts office reference
Annual Apprenticeship Levy allowance amount Amount of annual Apprenticeship Levy allowance the employer is allocating to the employer’s PAYE reference
Apprenticeship Levy due year to date Amount of Apprenticeship Levy liability due to date which the employer has calculated
Tax month Put the tax month to which the return of Apprenticeship Levy relates

New employees

When an employee starts working for you, register them with HMRC by including this information in your FPS the first time you pay them.

Field Description
Start date Only fill this in the first time you pay a new employee
Starter declaration Put the starter declaration that you’ve worked out. Do not put anything for new pensioners, or employees seconded from abroad
Student Loan indicator Put ‘Yes’ if your employee needs you to make Student Loan deductions
Address
UK postcode
Foreign country Only put their country of residence if they live outside the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man
Passport number Include this if you reviewed your employee’s passport to check they can work in the UK

There are special rules for what to fill in if you:

When an employee leaves

Report this information when an employee leaves or if you close your PAYE scheme.

Field Description
Date of leaving
Payment after leaving indicator Put ‘Yes’ if you pay an employee after you’ve sent an FPS with their leaving date (for example, you’re paying them after giving them a P45)

Workplace pensions

Report this information when you’re paying a workplace pension or annuity.

Field Description
Occupational pension indicator Put ‘Yes’ if you make occupational pension payments
Annual amount of occupational pension Only put this the first time you pay someone from an HMRC-registered workplace pension scheme. Otherwise leave this field blank (do not enter £0.00)
Employee receiving occupational pension because they’re a recently bereaved spouse/civil partner Put ‘Yes’ if this applies
Trivial commutation payment type If you’re paying a lump sum — put ‘A’ for a trivial commutation lump sum (TCLS), ‘B’ if it’s from a personal pension scheme, or ‘C’ if it’s from a workplace or public service pension scheme
Trivial commutation payment The lump sum paid. Also fill in the ‘Taxable pay to date’ and ‘Taxable pay in this period’ fields, and put any non-taxable amount in the ‘Non-tax or National Insurance contribution payment’ field
Payment to a non-individual Put ‘Yes’ if you make payments to a personal representative, trustee or corporate organisation etc

End-of-year or final reports

You’ll need to complete certain annual reports and tasks to prepare for the next tax year, which starts on 6 April.

Report this information in your final FPS or EPS of the tax year. You will also need to fill in the relevant fields if it’s your last report because you’re closing your PAYE scheme.

Field Description new
Final submission for year Put ‘Yes’ to tell HMRC this is your final payroll report of the tax year
Ceased indicator Put ‘Yes’ if this is the last report because you’re closing your PAYE scheme. Also enter ‘Date scheme ceased’ and the ‘Date of leaving’ for all your employees. Do not fill in ‘Final submission for year’
Date scheme ceased
Published 12 June 2014
Last updated 6 April 2023 + show all updates
  1. Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for tax year 2023 to 2024.

  2. Rates and allowances for National Insurance contributions have been updated and will take effect from 6 July 2022.

  3. Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for tax year 2022 to 2023.

  4. Code G, reasonable excuse has been updated in the 'late reporting reason' section.

  5. Clarification added to late reporting reason code G.

  6. Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for tax year 2021 to 2022.

  7. The section on Claiming Employment Allowance has been updated to give more detailed information about reporting.

  8. Claim Employment Allowance section has been updated.

  9. Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for tax year 2020 to 2021.

  10. Information about where you can find the Accounts Office reference has been updated.

  11. The Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) amounts have been updated within the guidance.

  12. More details about the Student Loan Plan type has been added.

  13. The employee information section has been updated to help ensure post codes are entered correctly.

  14. Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2018 to 2019.

  15. Information about running an employer payroll has been updated.

  16. The Payroll ID changed indicator section of the employee information table has been updated.

  17. Table under 'end-of-year or final reports' heading has been updated for the tax year 2017 to 2018.

  18. Information on reporting Apprenticeship Levy added to the page.

  19. Minor amend on when to complete the 'Employment Allowance indicator' field

  20. The National Insurance and Late reporting reason sections have been updated.

  21. Late reporting guidance updated on what payroll information to report to HM Revenue and Customs.

  22. Guide updated to to clarify the use of unique payroll ids and when to set the payroll id changed indicator.

  23. Rates, allowances and duties have been updated for the tax year 2015 to 2016.

  24. You can now tell HMRC up to 12 months in advance if you won't pay any employees and include a tax month when submitting an EPS.

  25. There is an additional situation where the 'Payment after leaving' indicator should be used.

  26. First published.