Update on PAYE disputed charges

27 August 2014

HMRC have provided an update on their efforts to understand and resolve disputed PAYE charges.

HMRC say that:

From Friday 22 August we started to send letters to employers who are disputing a PAYE charge with us.

Although there have been relatively few disputed charges, we wanted to review the root causes thoroughly and improve our systems wherever possible. It is clear from that review that, while there are a number of different reasons for disputed charges, the main cause is duplicate employments.

The creation of duplicate employments is not a new issue. However, filing PAYE information in real time means that there is an increased chance of an error occurring which can then create a duplicate record. To help prevent this we have:

· Improved our guidance, especially Information you must get right when running your payroll

· Improved our IT to prevent the most frequent errors from generating a duplicate employment on our systems

· Put in place processes to correct as soon as possible for those that do get through.

In the letter we apologise for the length of time it is taking us to resolve their query and explain that we will contact them as soon as possible. We also explain there are many reasons why a change may not reconcile, and identifying the reasons in each particular case can be time consuming.

If employers can’t immediately reconcile what they think they owe HMRC with what HMRC says is due, they should work through our Reconciling PAYE charges helpsheet. This sets out the steps employers can take to eliminate some of the most common errors and resolve the issue without having to contact HMRC. The helpsheet also explains what they should do if, after all the checks, they still can’t reconcile the charge.