If your company is registered as an employer, you must report certain payroll information to HMRC through Pay As You Earn (PAYE) every time you pay your employees and directors. This system of electronic reporting, which was introduced in 2013, is known as Real-Time Information (RTI). As the name suggests, you are reporting payroll information to HMRC in (almost) real-time.
There are two main submissions that you (or your accountant) will need to send to HMRC through payroll software:
- Full Payment Submission (FPS) – on or before each payday, you must report your employees’ pay, taxable benefits, and deductions in an FPS
- Employer Payment Summary (EPS) – by the 19th of the following tax month, you must send an EPS if you need to claim refunds or allowances or make certain declarations
By the 22nd of every month, you must pay HMRC the deductions reported in your FPS in the previous tax month, minus any reductions claimed in the EPS that you sent in the current tax month.
What to include in a Full Payment Submission (FPS)
A Full Payment Submission (FPS) is an RTI document that you must complete each and every time you pay your employees — whether that’s weekly, fortnightly, every four weeks, or monthly. So, if employees and directors are paid weekly, you will send 52 Full Payment Submissions; if they’re paid monthly, you will send 12 throughout the year; and so on.
Full Payment Submissions provide HMRC with the following information:
- Employer registration details – employer PAYE Reference and Accounts Office reference
- Employee details (this includes company directors) – name and address, DOB, National Insurance number and category, tax code, student loan status, normal weekly hours, and pay frequency
- Pay and deductions for each employee – gross pay, pension contributions, Income Tax and National Insurance deductions, employer’s National Insurance contributions, student loan repayments, statutory pay (e.g., maternity, paternity, sick pay), pay date, and year-to-date figures
- New-starts and leavers – details of any employees who have joined or left the company since the previous pay period, including their start/leave dates
- Changes to employees’ personal or employment details
These submissions ensure that HMRC holds accurate and up-to-date records of your employees, their pay and deductions, and the payments you need to make.
What to include in an Employer Payment Summary (EPS)
In addition to regular Full Payment Submissions, you will also need to submit an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) to report any adjustments to your payroll liability.
You must submit an EPS through your payroll software if you need to:
- Tell HMRC that no payments were made to employees in a whole tax month
- Recover statutory payments made to employees
- Claim the Employment Allowance
- Pay the Apprenticeship Levy
- Reclaim Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions
- Declare that no employees will be paid in a future tax month
- Tell HMRC that you have made your final FPS for the tax year
- Tell HMRC that your PAYE scheme has ended
If you need to send an EPS, it must be submitted to HMRC by the 19th of the following tax month to ensure that reductions are applied to your bill on time.
When your EPS has been submitted, you will be able to view what you’ve claimed and what you owe to HMRC in your HMRC online account. This information is normally available within 2 days—or by the 14th of the month if your EPS was submitted before the 11th.
