Online Filing for 2007/08 Year End - Live returns, test returns and messages

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31 January 2008

Starting mid-February, HMRC will send notice P35N Notice to send a Return to

• employers with 50 or more employees who are registered online,
  
  
• employers with fewer than 50 employees who are registered for online services, if their Return for the previous tax year was sent online
  
  
• agents to whom employers have authorised HMRC to send information online.

Employers do not have to wait until 6 April 2008 to start filing their year-end Returns for 2007/08. Returns filed online before 6 April will be validated and the appropriate email message will be sent back immediately. However, they will not be processed until after 6 April. (If they file early, small employers entitled to the £100 online filing incentive for 2007/08 should not reduce their final 2007/08 payment by the £100 – their PAYE account will not be credited until after 6 April 2008.)

The Internet service will be unavailable for a short period at the start of the new tax year for HMRC's annual upgrade and details of this downtime will be published nearer the time. Submissions by EDI are not affected in this way.

Employers may, if they wish, use the "Test in Live" facility to confirm that all or part of their P14 and P35 submissions fully meet the validation rules. Unfortunately, despite the problems encountered by some employers last year, HMRC has been unable to arrange for the Government Gateway to send different email messages in response to live and test Returns. The email message that will be sent for both live and test Returns if they are successful is as follows:

"The submission for reference XXX/XXXXX was successfully received on XX-XXXXXX. If this was a test transmission, remember you still need to send your actual Employer Annual Return using the live transmission in order for it to be processed."

However, the success messages sent online by HMRC to the software making the submission do differentiate between live and test Returns:

"9004: The EOY Return has been processed and passed full validation"

"9001: This submission would have been successfully processed if sent under non test conditions."

If the validation rules are not satisfied in any respect, HMRC will send a failure message explaining why the submission has failed.

At the end of the 2006/07 tax year, some employers failed to send their live Return after sending a test Return. HMRC has asked payroll system developers to consider what they can do to help employers avoid making this mistake, by providing better guidance or by making the software success messages more visible to users when they are received.

If a submission is unsuccessful, the email message from the Gateway will say:

"The submission for reference XXX/XXXXX was received on XX-XXXXXX. Unfortunately it could not be accepted as it failed data checks. To correct this please use the help provided within the software you used to complete your form and send it again."

HMRC will also send an online rejection message back to the software making the submission, highlighting the error(s).

Unless P14s and P35s are sent in parts at separate times, each complete submission will be validated on receipt and an acceptance or rejection message sent back to the submitting software, in most cases within a minute. Employers should expect that, having sent their Returns online, HMRC's acceptance or rejection message will be received almost immediately. In the case of large submissions, the message may not arrive until the following day. In all cases, however, the employer should check the return message in case the Return has been rejected.

If P14s and their covering P35 are sent in parts over the Internet, HMRC will only send an acceptance or rejection message once all of the P14s have been consolidated and checked against the P35.

...UK Payroll News - Latest

Further information:
Notes for Payroll Software Developers - Supplementary Edition

The UK Payroll News is sponsored by HRD & Payroll Solutions

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