RTI Paper Filing for Quarter 1

   There are a small number of employers who are exempt from filing online or unable to file online.  These fall into the following three categories:

1. Religious exemption
2. Providers of care or support services from home
3. Exceptional circumstances (where there is inability or difficulty in using an online channel)

See Further Information below for links to HMRC’s Website on who is exempt and who is considered unable to file online.

However, an ‘exempt or unable’ employer is still required to operate filing of payroll information via the FPS and EPS, though this will not be in real time.  Instead, they are required to file quarterly using paper submissions.  The first paper submission for the 2014/15 tax year is due 14 days after the end of the tax Quarter, i.e. by 19 July 2014 (covering payments made in the period 06 April to 05 July 2014).  Employers should have received forms and guidance directly from HMRC and this is not available to download from HMRC’s Website.  All queries should be directed to the Employer Helpline on 0300 200 3200.

The starting point for employers should be the RT7 ‘Guidance for Employers Exempt from filing Online’.  This guidance will direct employers to the paper filing, which, in short, requires the following forms and guidance material:

• RT11 Recording Sheet – for day-to-day / week-to-week recording of employee payments
• RT2 Full Quarter Payment Summary – the Quarterly summary of the all of the RT11s that have applied to employees paid in the tax Quarter.  This will summarise the personal details of the employees together with the pay, tax, NICs and Student Loan Deductions that have been applied
• RT3 Full Payment Summary supplement – for items like ASPP, employees seconded to the UK, directors and pensioners
• RT4 End of Tax Year Summary – to report consolidated tax year information for the final Quarter of the year
• RT5 Employer Payment Summary – to claim reductions in the amounts payable to HMRC

Comment Exempt or unable employers who have not received communication from HMRC are strongly urged to contact the Employer Helpline.  Of course, even though these employers are not obliged by law to submit electronically, they can choose to do so if they wish.  Further, employers who are paper filers must tell their employees that they file information in this way, as information from paper filing is not shared with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).  Therefore, if an employee of a paper-filing employer is in receipt of the Universal Credit, they will have to self-report their own earnings to the DWP.

Further Information

• HMRC – Guidance for Employers Exempt from Filing or Unable to File Online