No automated late payment penalties for RTI until April 2014, HMRC says

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will not issue penalties on in-year Full Payment Submissions (FPS) until April 2014 as it helps small businesses and others with the introduction of Real Time Information (RTI).

Additionally, the department has announced that there will be no automated late payment penalties until the same date, though the current processes will remain in place until then.

However, from October 2013 HMRC will be sending out letters to employers to show when they would have been liable to a penalty, helping them to correct their mistakes for the following tax year.

Suzanne Newton, Programme Director for RTI, said the majority of firms are saying that reporting in real time is "straightforward".

She added: "After stakeholder consultation, we have published our guidance on late and inaccurate returns sent in real time. This will give most employers a year to get used to reporting in real time before implementing the new penalties."

However, research by TaxAssist Accountants and the All-Parliamentary Taxation Group found that 61.1 per cent of the firms they questioned do not know what RTI is.

Posted by Emily Smith

Last updated: 29th November 2012