HMRC eases stance on late PAYE filings
Companies with fewer than 50 employees will be granted three days' grace for late PAYE submissions
COMPANIES with fewer than 50 employees will be afforded three days’ grace before penalties will be imposed on them for late filing of PAYE submissions, HM Revenue & Customs has confirmed.
Late payment penalties will continue to be reviewed on a risk-assessed basis rather than be issued automatically.
However, there is no change to the filing deadlines, which generally means filing on or before each payment date.
In order to prevent the unnecessary penalties being issued, HMRC will be closing around 15,000 PAYE schemes next month that have not made a PAYE report since April 2013 and appear to have ceased.
HMRC will write to the affected schemes to tell them about the planned closure and what to do if they are, or should be, operating PAYE.
Employers with fewer than 50 employees are reminded that PAYE late filing penalties will apply to them from 6 March.
HMRC has published a discussion document seeking views by 11 May about potential improvements to the way in which penalties apply for failing to pay what is owed or to meet deadlines for returns or registration.