It’s All Your Fault

HMRC not to blame for disputed PAYE bills

In a recent HMRC document titled, ‘Real Time Information (RTI): Reconciling 2013-14 PAYE charges’, the Revenue absolve themselves of any blame for PAYE bills that are challenged by employers.

HMRC say in the document, “We have found that the majority of discrepancies have been due to misunderstanding, error or transitional issues as employers joined RTI, and there is no evidence of error in the way that HMRC’s IT systems create the charge”, and, “No evidence that HMRC IT systems are calculating the charge incorrectly.” The department do concede however that it would be helpful to both HMRC employees and employers alike, to increase the knowledge of how the employer charge is created.

According to the report, key causes of discrepancies were:

• miscellaneous employer error;
• Employer Payment Summary (EPS) returns;
• payments to leavers;
• timing of updates to HMRC’s Business Tax Dashboard (the View Account facility in the PAYE Online account); and
• issues relating to returns for the Construction Industry Scheme.

To assist those employers who experience difficulty in reconciling payments, HMRC have provided the following troubleshooting tips:

• check that an EPS has been sent (if needed);
• ensure that the EPS includes the year-to-date figure;
• ensure that enough time is left for HMRC’s Business Tax Dashboard to be updated;
• check that payments to HMRC match the amounts reported in your Full Payment Submissions (FPS) and EPS submissions with particular reference to tax weeks and tax months;
• check that leavers and post leaving payments have been correctly reported; and
• check that HMRC have not allocated the payment to a different period.