HMRC issues PAYE paper filing warning

HM Revenue & Customs has sent an urgent alert to employers regarding PAYE payments moving online.

The taxman has terminated all paper submissions of Employer Annual Returns for small employers with fewer than 50 staff this year.

The statement by HMRC said anyone in this category sending in paper submissions will be fined a late penalty charge even if it is sent in before the deadline date, 19 May.

This May will also see HMRC introduce new penalties for late payment of PAYE with the fine now calculated as a percentage of the amount paid late rather than a fixed amount. The percentage charged increases as the number of late payments in the year increases.

Stephen Banyard, director of the business customer unit at HMRC, said: " Major changes to PAYE filing and payment are only a matter of weeks away, so employers need to make sure they’re well prepared for them. We will be writing to affected employers over the coming weeks."

“One key thing to flag up at this stage is that employers do not need to keep a hard copy of their Employer Annual Return if they file it online themselves. As a consequence, HMRC will be reducing its stocks of hard-copy PAYE forms – P35s and P14s. So please carefully consider your PAYE stationery requirements before ordering paper forms from HMRC,” he said.

Further reading:

HMRC overhauls PAYE coding system