Employment Payment Summary (EPS) enhancements

The Employment Payment Summary (EPS) is one of the main Real Time Information (RTI) files you need to remember to send to HMRC. It notifies HMRC of various payments made and to be recovered but can also be used to notify if you aren’t processing any pay runs. Why would HMRC want to know that? If you don’t notify HMRC that you haven’t paid anyone they will be expecting you to file a Full Payment Summary (FPS), which would be created from your pay run. If HMRC expect an FPS and don’t receive one they will create a specified charge which is an estimation of how much HMRC think you owe in PAYE tax and NICS. Just to top it off you could also get a late filing penalty so it is critically important to keep HMRC in the loop and send an EPS. With our latest release, KeyPay makes this even easier. With the new features within the EPS it will not only keep HMRC happy but have us all singing from the same compliance hymn sheet.

Fab, tell me more about Employment Payment Summaries with KeyPay

Ok, let’s go back to basics and just remind ourselves what the EPS actually is.

The EPS is an RTI file that you need to send to HMRC by the 19th of the following month to enable you to:

• Reclaim any statutory maternity, paternity, adoption or parental pay
• Claim the Employment allowance
• Reclaim any Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions
• Pay the Apprenticeship Levy

KeyPay users already know how much of a time saver our automated EPS submissions are.  With the automated EPS submissions in KeyPay you simply set the date you want your EPS filed with HMRC and KeyPay will submit it for you. You can also send it manually if needed to - for example in the case of notifying HMRC of a period of inactivity.

With our latest release, you can now submit no payment for a period, submit periods of inactivity and submit a final EPS with a ceasing scheme date.

Let’s take a closer look at the new features

When you create an Employer Payment Summary and click 'Submit EPS' you now have a few extra options.

No Payments for Period.

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If you haven’t needed to process a pay run for a prior pay period, you need to notify HMRC that you've had no payments for that period. Just tick the ‘No payments for period’ box and this will populate with the dates relevant to the tax period selected.

Tip: Remember this is to notify HMRC that no payroll has been processed and needs to be sent by the 19th of the following month.

Periods of Inactivity

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If you want to notify HMRC about future periods of inactivity - where you won’t be processing any pay runs for multiple periods - then tick the Period of inactivity box, and enter the dates for the tax periods.

Tip: You can only send future periods so the From date will default to the start of the next tax period.

Final EPS Ceasing Business

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If you need to notify HMRC that this is the final EPS for the tax year and / or the PAYE scheme has ceased, just tick the 'Final EPS for the tax year' box and if relevant, the 'This is the final EPS because the PAYE scheme has ceased option' and select the cessation date.

Note: You cannot send a cessation date in the future.

Your EPS is now ready to submit! All you need to do is click the submit button and your EPS will be filed with HMRC

That’s not all, folks!

Within the EPS report you can now download the full XML file so you can review it if there's errors in the submission or, in case you want to print it and perhaps make a XML based paper airplane.

So there you have it - 3 new EPS options in KeyPay to help keep you compliant and make life easier.

For more in depth information visit the knowledge base or contact us via support@yourpayroll.co.uk.