On 23 June 2014 HMRC published information about newly introduced penalties for failing to submit PAYE data on time. You can find detailed information on the following HMRC link: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/news/paye-late-pen.pdf.
Meanwhile here are some answers to common questions about the penalties according to HMRC guidance as published on 23 June 2014.
When will HMRC raise a filing penalty?
a) where a Full Payment Submission (FPS) has not been filed on or before the date you paid your employees, or
where you have not told HMRC why the submission is legitimately late by using the late reporting reason field.
b) where HMRC has not received the expected number of submissions from you.
How will HMRC charge penalties?
- HMRC will charge one penalty for each tax month that you failed to file on time. So, for example, if a weekly filer makes two (or more) returns late within a tax month, they will only charge one penalty.
- HMRC will not charge a penalty for the first month in each tax year where you failed to file on time. HMRC can charge a maximum of 11 fixed penalties for late filing in a tax year.
- HMRC will not issue a penalty to a new employer if your first FPS is received within 30 days of making the first payment to your employee(s). But after that, normal penalties rules will apply if there is a failure to file on time.
- Employers with nine or fewer employees and who meet certain conditions can take advantage of a relaxation for 2014-15 and 2015-16 (see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payerti/transitional.pdf). This allows you to report PAYE information about all your payments in a tax month on or before the last payday in that tax month. If you qualify for this relaxation it is important that you read the guidance that explains how to complete the payment date on your FPS.
- The amount of the monthly filing penalty per PAYE scheme varies according to the number of employees in the scheme as follows:
1 to 9 employees – £100
10 to 49 employees – £200
50 to 249 employees – £300
250 or more employees – £400
- Where a return is late for three months or more HMRC may charge a further penalty of 5% of the tax/NICs that would have been paid if the information you provide had been sent on time. They will apply this penalty only for the most serious and persistent failures.
