RTI has been mandatory since October 2013. Many aspects of RTI are quite detailed, but here is a summary of the more important areas.
RTI followed an HMRC consultation document in 2010 on reforms to the PAYE system. Real time information (RTI) submits details of pay and deductions to HMRC every time an employer runs their payroll.
RTI is essential to the operation of universal credit which is currently replacing income-related benefits and tax credits.
PAYE
The introduction of RTI has not altered the fundamentals of PAYE. The original intention was that employers would be required to pay their employees using the banks’ BACS payment system. This idea was not implemented, so employees can still be paid by cash, cheque or any electronic basis.
At the start of the tax year, HMRC issues a tax code for each employee. This is used to calculate how much income tax is due every time an employee is paid whether weekly or monthly. RTI allows HMRC to update tax codes more frequently.
In theory PAYE should be more accurate with less need for repayments and tax demands after the end of the tax year.
The PAYE deducted, along with NICs, is paid over to HMRC on a monthly basis. The due date if paying electronically is the 22nd following the tax month. For example, the payment for August 2022 (the tax month to 5 September) must be received by 22 September 2022.
Smaller employers, whose total PAYE/NIC payment is estimated to be on average less than £1,500 per month, can pay on a quarterly basis.
Employees employed at the end of a tax year must be given form P60 by 31 May following the tax year. This summarises total pay and deductions for the year.
Benefits and expense payments are outside the scope of RTI currently. However, from 6 April 2016, a formal basis of payrolling benefits has been introduced so that taxable benefits can be included within the normal payroll.
Benefits that have been payrolled will not then need to be included on form P11D.
PAYE SCHEMES
If all employees are paid below the NIC lower earnings limit, then an employer might not be required to run a PAYE scheme – so no RTI reporting will be necessary. But the employer must be very careful in this situation. For example, if just one employee has two jobs, then they may need to be taxed at the basic rate, meaning that PAYE deductions are required.
It will then be necessary for the employer to run a PAYE scheme and report details for all employees under RTI. So it is essential for an employer to establish the correct tax status of each their employees.
Prior to the introduction of RTI, it was not necessary to report PAYE details where an employee had earnings below the NIC lower earnings limit. With RTI, if an employer is operating a PAYE scheme then PAYE details have to be reported for every employee.
PAYROLL SOFTWARE
RTI must be reported electronically, with no option to produce payroll manually. It is therefore necessary to either use payroll software or to use the services of a payroll provider. The use of payroll software automates much of the payroll process, especially where employees are paid a regular salary.
An option for employers with no more than nine employees is to use HMRC’s free Basic PAYE Tools package. Although not a full payroll package, this calculates PAYE deductions and reports the relevant information to HMRC. However, many users have commented that they are far from happy with HMRC’s product, and it is not expected to be compatible with Auto Enrolment until April 2016.
FPSs and EPSs
Employers must report details of pay and deductions to HMRC every time that employees are paid. This is known as a full payment submission (FPS), and must be submitted either before employees are paid or at the time of payment. With payroll software, the FPS process is simply an extra step after having run the normal payroll.
There are a various circumstances where an employer payment summary (EPS) might also need to be submitted, although payroll software will again make the submission fairly seamless.
Virtually all small employers can claim the £5,000 a year NIC employment allowance. With payroll software, this will just be a case of setting the employment allowance indicator, which will then be submitted as an EPS. An EPS will be used if there is any reduction in the amount that an employer owes HMRC because of reclaimed maternity, shared parental or adoption pay. It can also be used to indicate that no employees will be paid for up to six months.
An EPS has to be submitted by the 19th following the tax month to which it relates. For example, an EPS for August 2022 (the tax month to 5 September) must be received by 19 September 2022.
OTHER POINTS
It is necessary to report the number of hours an employee works each week. For each employee, it is simply a matter of selecting the most appropriate of five bandings:
A Less than 16 hours.
B 16 hours or more but less than 24 hours.
C 24 hours or more but less than 30 hours.
D 30 hours or more.
E Other – such as an irregular work pattern.
With payroll software, it means just having to initially set an employee’s record and then updating if the work pattern changes.
Payments to temporary, irregular and casual employees must all be reported.
No year-end returns are submitted to HMRC because all relevant information is reported during the tax year.
New employees
For a new employee, the employer will need the employee’s full name, date of birth, national insurance number, gender and address.
If previously employed during the tax year, then the employee will normally have form P45 from their previous employer. Form P45 will show the employee’s leaving date from their previous employment, pay and tax paid to date, and tax code at the time of leaving. This information is provided to HMRC as part of the usual RTI filing process.
Employee leaving
When an employee leaves, it is simply a matter of including the leaving date on the FPS when the employee receives their final pay. The employee must be given form P45, although this will automatically be produced by payroll software.
Small businesses
A small business might have just one or two employees who are paid a fixed weekly wage. With RTI, this would strictly mean having to submit a FPS every week of the tax year – a fairly onerous requirement, and expensive if a payroll provider is used.
A director of an owner/managed company with no other employees may take a low level of remuneration to use the personal allowance. The balance of income can be withdrawn as dividends. Because NIC thresholds are applied on an annual basis for directors, there is likely to be just one payment to HMRC which will be due for the final quarter of the tax year. However, FPSs are still required monthly.
Again, submitting several FPSs in advance is an easy solution. For example, April, May and June could be filed together prior to the April submission deadline. Such quarterly filing will tie in with the deadlines for quarterly payments to HMRC even though there is just the one payment. It is also possible to set up an annual PAYE scheme, but these generally seem to result in too many problems to justify the small time saving.
Penalties
Penalties are charged for late FPSs. There is a three-day grace period before a penalty is imposed.
An employer is not penalised for the first late submission during a tax year. Any subsequent late filing during that year will result in a penalty.
Penalties are applied on a monthly basis, so there will be just one penalty even if more than one submission is late during any particular month. The amount of penalty ranges from £100 to £400 depending on the number of employees. HMRC can charge an additional tax-geared penalty where filing is more than three months late.
An inaccurate submission could also attract a penalty if the employer has not taken reasonable care.
An employer can be late with one monthly or quarterly payment without penalty during a tax year unless the payment is more than six months late. A subsequent late payment will result in a tax-geared penalty. The employer will also be charged daily interest for late payments.
CONCLUSION
RTI is now working much better than many people expected. For employers running their own payroll, problems can be minimised by using good quality payroll software rather than relying on HMRC’s free Basic PAYE Tools package.
