RTI Live

We are avidly processing payrolls with a RTI Payment Date for Month 08 (06 November to 05 December).  The EPS ‘Window’ from Month 08 ‘opened’ on 20 November 2013 with the exception of window for NIL submissions which does not open until the tax Month has finished, i.e. 06 December 2013.

December will see many payrolls being processed earlier than the usual contractual payday.  This, in itself poses some complexities for payroll software:

• The Payment Date (RTI Field 43) reported on the FPS should be the regular payday.  Therefore, if the regular payday is 25 December, however, payment is made on the 23^rd, the FPS should still show the 25^th as the date that the payment was made to the employee.  It is important that the Payment Date and the Tax Month reported at Field 45 are in line with the tax calendar
• For Weekly payrolls, there are two considerations id the payday is brought forward in December and January (Month 09)
  • It is similarly important to populate the Payment Date field with the date that the regular payment should have been made rather than the date that the payment was actually made.  For example, if a weekly payroll pays on 24 December instead of 26 December, the Payment Date field should still show 26 December as the date that the payment was actually made
  • If the weekly payroll is paying more than one pay period, it is important that the ‘Number of Earnings Periods Covered by Payment’ (Field 48) is completed correctly.  Normally, this field will be populated with a 1, indicating that the payment represents 1 week, 1 fortnight, 1 month etc.  However, in the example where 3 weeks are paid in one payday, the value of this field needs to change from 1 to 3.  For example, an organisation pays its weekly employees for 3 weeks on 20 December 2013 (covering the three weekly payments up to payday 03 January 2014).  In addition to the payroll processing of advancing tax Weeks and apportioning the National Insurance Contributions correctly, the FPS will need to populate Field 48 with ‘3’
• It is important that the Month 09 Employer Payment Summary (EPS) is sent within the EPS Window – for recoveries this opens on 20 December and for NIL submissions on 06 January 2014, both closing 19 January 2014.  Therefore, even if the actual December pay date is brought forward to before 19^th it is essential that the EPS is not sent until the Window opens.  If the Month 09 EPS is sent on or before 19 December, this will overwrite the Month 08 EPS

We recommend reading our article dated 10 October 2013 concerning the ‘EPS Window’, i.e. the window in which the EPS should be submitted to ensure that it is taken into account against the appropriate month’s liabilities – see Further Information.

Note that HMRC have issued a Direction Notice regarding Examiners or Electoral payrolls that are currently excluded from returning in real time.  RTI submissions will be required for these payrolls from 06 April 2014.

Just a word on the amended data items that will apply from April 2014 – HMRC have published their ‘Guidance’ on these on their Website.

Further Information

• HMRC  – Information you must get right when running your payroll
• HMRC  – RTI ‘Guidelist’
• HMRC – Guidance on RTI Data Items from April 2014
• HMRC – Direction Notice re Examiners and Electoral Payrolls
• Payroll Help 10 October 2013 – The Employer Payment Summary UPDATED