Common employer PAYE charge issues

Employers can often find discrepancies within payroll involving Pay As You Earn (PAYE).

This can have major effects on both employer and employee concerning things like your PAYE tax bill and National Insurance contributions.

With this in mind, here are a few tips to overcome some of the most common PAYE charge problems.

Payroll ID changes

Every employee will have a unique payroll ID that will appear on their payslip. This ID is also known as an employee number or employee payroll number.

If an employee has more than one job within the business on different payrolls, then they should have the corresponding number of employee numbers. These numbers should always be unique.

If an employee leaves the company but then re-joins at a later date, you cannot use their previous employee number, but a completely new number. Their year-to-date payment information should start again at £0.00.

If an employee leaves

Once an employee is leaving or has left the business, submit a full payment submission with the employee’s leaving date.

If payment is made after they have left, the original date that they left should still be included in the submission.

The payment after leaving indicator will only be marked where you have issued a P45 and have made another payment.

Duplicate or identical Full Payment Submissions that report payments after leaving should not be submitted unless you have received a rejection notification for the original.

If any changes to leaving dates are necessary, they only need to be recorded on your payroll system (if required).

Occupational pension and irregular payment fields

The ‘occupational pension’ indicator should only be marked if you are paying a pension, the same applies to the ‘Annual amount of occupational pension’ indicator.

The ‘Irregular payment pattern’ indicator should be set for any employee who is paid infrequently.

For further advice on payroll matters, contact our expert team today.