Reporting payroll figures was never that straightforward but from April 2013 it got a whole lot more complicated!
With the introduction of RTI (Real Time Information) in April 2013, the reporting requirements went from annual to monthly. There was also the threat of penalties for not submitting the monthly reports on time.
The penalites were actually due to be introduced in April 2014 but they have actually been postponed until October 2014. However, in-year late payment interest has been introduced from 20 May 2014.
In the pre RTI days, if you paid late, you were not charged interest as long as you brought your payments up to date by 19 April following the end of the tax year.
From this tax year, HMRC will charge interest from the day after the payment was due, which is the 19th of each month.
If you don’t pay your PAYE/NI by the 19th then HMRC will charge you interest, which will be 3%.
To ensure you don’t get charged the interest, it is a good idea to pay HMRC electronically. It gives you greater certainty that the payment has reached HMRC and it also gives you another 3 days to pay – to the 22nd of each month.
