HMRC has confirmed that from 6 March 2015, small businesses with fewer than 50 employees will be given a three-day grace period before penalties are imposed on them for late filing of PAYE submissions. However, there won’t be any changes to the filing deadlines. Businesses will still be required to file on or before each payment date unless the circumstances set out in the “sending an FPS [Full Payment Submission] after payday” guidance apply.
Automatic penalties for late payments were due to start from 6 April, but HMRC said it will now review these on a risk-assessed basis, instead of issuing them automatically.
To further prevent the number of unnecessary PAYE penalties issued, HMRC has also confirmed that it will, in the coming weeks, shut down up to 15,000 PAYE schemes that haven’t made a PAYE report since April 2013 and which appear to have been terminated.
HMRC said, “We recognise that RTI is a relatively new highly digital system and that although the majority pay and file on time, some employers are still adapting,”
