Tina Davies – Payroll Manager
tina.davies@bevanbuckland.co.uk
01792 410117
Late filing penalties
You must submit to HMRC the details of staff pay and deductions on or before the day the payment is made to the employee. This is done by submitting a FPS.
If you failed to make any payments to your employees in a tax month, you need to send a NIL (EPS) employer payment summary to HMRC.
HMRC may charge a late filing penalty where:
- The FPS or EPS was submitted late on more than one occasion in a tax year.
- You did not send the required number of FPS where there is more than one payment day in the month.
Where a late filing penalty is charged, the amount depends on the number of employees you have in your PAYE scheme, ranging from £100 for schemes with between one and nine employees, to £400 for schemes with 250 or more employees.
A further penalty of 5% of the tax and national insurance due may be charged if your report is submitted more than three months late.
Penalties are charged per tax year and sent to employers on a quarterly basis. The first quarter for 2017/18 came to an end on 5 July 2017. If you receive a penalty notice, you need to check it is correct and, if it is, pay the penalty within 30 days.
Late filing appeals
If you don’t think the penalty is due, or believe the amount of the penalty is wrong, you can launch an appeal with HMRC. You have 30 days to lodge an appeal, either online or by post.
If you filed late, but had a reasonable excuse, you can appeal the penalty on those grounds. However, HMRC takes a harsh line as to what it deems to be a reasonable excuse.
The following is the list of reasons which HMRC may accept as providing valid grounds for appeal:
- Data on the returns was incorrect
- Filing expectation was incorrect
- Death/bereavement
- Filed on time
- Fire, flood or natural disaster
- Ill health
- IT difficulty
- Missed correction/easement
- No longer have any employees
- No payments made to employees
- Crime (such as theft).
There may also be other grounds for an appeal where the reason for filing late does not fit into any of the above categories.
For more information on how Bevan & Buckland can help with your payroll duties. Please contact Tina Davies on 01792 410117 or via email tina.davies@bevanbuckland.co.uk