EXCLUSIVE: Payroll World have reported that RTI non-compliance penalties will not be introduced in April, following months of pressure on HMRC from the payroll industry.
Instead, RTI penalties will be phased in from October this year.
The decision will be announced by HMRC later today and follows a consultation that closed last month.
HMRC director general personal tax, Ruth Owen, who holds responsibility for the RTI project has said:: “We’ve listened to customer feedback and there has been some concern about the introduction of penalties from April this year.
“Penalties for late filing of RTI submissions were due to come in from April – that will now start from 6th October this year, so that gives employers through to October to bring everything up to date.
“In terms of automated late-payment penalties they were due to start in April of this year and recognising that people are still getting to understand their charges under RTI we’ve decided to start late payment penalties from 6th April 2015 – so a 12 month delay to those penalties.
“Interest will still apply, so anyone paying late payment interest – this will apply from April 2014, as has always been the case, so no change. We are not delaying interest.
“Also there are some businesses that have been using the concession for ‘on or before’ during this year for whom the concession will not apply from April, so if you are a small but not micro business you will now need to start reporting in real time.”
Here at Numerus we believe that this will be a welcome concession for Employers, however we cannot stress the importance to ensure full RTI compliance. We have ensured that our client’s FPS and EPS submissions are sent to HMRC in a timely manner. We also stress to clients the importance of paying PAYE by the appropriate deadline and we will continue to do so.