HMRC real-time project to draw in 1,300 more employers

HM REVENUE & CUSTOMS will bring 1,300 pay-as-you-earn scheme operators into its real-time information project by September.

The project, launched in April, requires pension providers and employers to report PAYE activity to HMRC in real time, rather than at the end of each tax year, Accountancy Age's sister publication Professional Pensions reports.

Last month, HMRC proposed a system of fines for operators that fail to comply.

HMRC's acting director-general for personal tax, Stephen Banyard, said: "RTI is on track and the pilot is going very well. We have successfully received over 1.7 million individual records from 338 PAYE schemes.

"Following the success of the first pilot stage, more PAYE schemes will join the RTI pilot, as planned, and by the end of September up to 1,300 employer schemes will be reporting PAYE in real time.

"We are also seeing external confidence in the pilot and we've responded to that by offering more large employers, payroll bureaux, new employers and software developers the opportunity to join the RTI pilot or to expand existing involvement in advance of the launch date in April 2013."

All employers will be reporting PAYE changes in real time by April 2013, HMRC said.