PAYE Employer late returns
HMRC has published an informational notice advising employers of changes to the way penalties are issued for late submission of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 PAYE annual returns. The change is part of HMRC’s transition to in-year PAYE Real Time Information penalties for late and non-filing.
There is a penalty of £100 per 50 employees for each month the return is outstanding. HMRC has recently introduced a number of measures to help minimise the amount of penalties levied, as in some cases, employers are unaware that their returns are late until they receive a first penalty letter in September covering a four month period of accrued penalties (a minimum of £400).
For the 2012-13 tax year, HMRC will now not issue a third penalty notice to those employers who have not yet submitted their 2012–13 return which was due on 19 May 2013. Penalty notices would have been sent out in September 2013 and January 2014, and HMRC will pursue any missing returns by virtue of these first two notices.
For the 2013–14 tax year, the deadline for submitting a return was 19 May 2014. HMRC will write to employers who they believe have yet to submit their 2013–14 return to alert them to take immediate action in order to avoid any penalty that is due from building up any further. In September 2014, a penalty notice will be sent to employers who have not filed their 2013–14 return. After this date, no further ‘interim’ penalty notices will be issued and HMRC will pursue any missing returns by virtue of the September notice.
These actions are part of a series of measures which are intended to help in smoothing the transition to in-year penalties. This approach should help avoid any confusion between the end of year penalties currently in operation and the new in-year penalties which are due to commence in October 2014 with the first quarterly penalty notices scheduled for issue in January 2015.