Beware the payroll penalties for small employers

From 6 March 2015 penalties apply to employers with 50 staff or less if the FPS is late, you didn't send the expect number of FPS or you didn't send an EPS if you didn't pay anyone during the tax month.

You won't receive a penalty if you are a new employer and submit your FPS within 30 days of paying an employee or if it is your first late submission during the tax year.

Employers with less than 10 employees can take advantage of the temporary reporting relaxation but must remember to use the late reporting code E.

Employers with 1-9 employees will be charged a monthly penalty of £100 and those with 10-49 employees will be charged a monthly penalty of £200.  If you are over 3 months late with your submissions you may receive an additional charge of 5% of the tax and NI you should have reported.

HMRC will only send notices quarterly, therefore it could be 3 months before you are aware that a submission has been made by which time you will have incurred penalties of £300 or £600 depending how many employees you have.  You must may the penalty with 30 days otherwise you will be charged interest on the amount outstanding.  You can appeal against the penalties online and there are a number of acceptable reasons why your return might be late.

Is it worth risking a penalty?  Outsource your payroll to us and you will know your return will be submitted on time - you won't even have to think about it.  Whether you have one or more employees you will be surprised how little it costs and how much time it saves you.