The Employer Payment Summary and ‘Split’ Payrolls (2)

In February 2013, we reported the potential issue of a single PAYE scheme reference that might be split between two, or more, locations.  For example:

• The weekly employees are processed by one location, however, the monthly employees are outsourced to a payroll bureau
• The main payroll is processed in-house, however, the expatriate employees on the payroll are processed externally by accountants

We explained that the Employer Payment Summary (EPS) would have to be submitted as a consolidated return for the whole scheme.  Whilst the EAS and FPS could be submitted in parts, for example, one part by the payroll bureau and the other by the in-house payroll team, this functionality did not exist with the EPS.

Firstly, it is important to recognise the requirement for a consolidated EPS.  Secondly, it is important to ascertain who this consolidated submission would be made – would payroll software allow manual intervention so that the figures from another payroll could be taken into account?

HMRC have published a document on how to use their Basic PAYE Tools (BPT) to perform the EPS.  This is not only useful in the above instances but also in the circumstances where current software does not submit or generate the EPS or where the bureau or agent does not perform this function.

Comment

We commented in February 2013 that this was, potentially, a big issue as there are many PAYE schemes that are split or processed over two or more locations.  The facility within BPT seems to provide one solution and employers may want to consider this.

Further Information

• Payroll Help 19 February 2013 – The Employer Payment Summary and ‘Split’ Payrolls
• HMRC  – Using BPT for the Employer Payment Summary Only