Guidance

What to do if you get an online penalty warning message

Information for employers if you receive a reminder through PAYE Online because your payroll submission or payment is made late.

Late reporting and late payment alerts

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) doesn’t want to charge penalties. To help employers keep their records up to date and avoid potential penalties, HMRC issues electronic alerts.

The following table tells you what you should do if you receive 1 of these messages. Check your PAYE records for the ‘period ending’ shown on the message.

Your Full Payment Submission (FPS) has been sent late

Message: Late filing notice
Check the payment dates on your FPSs, at least 1 is earlier than the date you sent it
Your FPS must be sent on or before the date of the earliest payment on the FPS - if you have a valid reason for sending your FPS after any of the payment dates you must complete the late reporting reason on future FPSs

HMRC hasn’t received the expected number of FPSs

Message: Non filing notice
Check whether any FPSs are still due for the tax period - HMRC works out how many FPSs you are expected to report based on previous filing data
If any FPS is still due, send it as soon as possible and include a late reporting reason if applicable
If you have stopped being an employer tell HMRC
If you haven’t paid anyone send an Employer Payment Summary to tell HMRC
If you have changed the amount of time between paying your employees eg from weekly to monthly, tell HMRC

HMRC hasn’t received your full payment when it was due

Message: Late payment notice
Check your payment records against the amounts reported on your FPSs
Pay any outstanding amounts to bring your payments up to date
If the date that HMRC received your payment is after the date that the payment is due, make sure that future payments are made on time
If the amount paid doesn’t match the amount you reported on your FPS, check your records to find out why
If you offset anything against the FPS amount, you must send an Employer Payment Summary to correct this
If you have made a mistake - correct the payroll error

How penalties are charged

Information for employers about late reporting and late payment penalties.

Updates to this page

Published 2 September 2014

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