Struggling With Payroll Year End?

Trying to process your payroll year end can seem like an endless series of time consuming tasks, which you probably don’t really need of you are a small business. This article looks at the key end of year tasks that need to be completed when it comes to payroll. And, remember, we’re here as your outsourced payroll experts, to take the strain if you don’t have the time.

Firstly, what is payroll year end?

At the end of the tax year, businesses must submit end-of-year declarations to HMRC. Employees should be issued with a P60, which is a statement for taxpayers summarising the tax they have paid throughout that year.

The end of the tax year in the UK is 5 April, but employers have until 31 May to issue P60s.

What to do to finish this year’s payrolls

• Send final Full Payment Submission (FPS) – this is a form that reports to HMRC what payments have been made to employees, and what deductions have been made. The deadline is on or before your employee’s payday.

You can submit this earlier, but don’t get ahead of yourself. It may seem like you’re ticking off chores, but if any information changes after you’ve sent it – for example, if someone resigns or changes tax code, you will need to send a corrected FPS.

In the next tax month, you will be able to view how much tax and National Insurance is owed via your HMRC online account.

• Send the final Employer Payment Summary –  Reductions can be claimed by sending an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) and then the balance must be paid.

EPS reductions include things like such as paternity or maternity pay, the Apprenticeship Levy, and Employment Allowance. You should also send an EPS instead of an FPS if no employees have been paid in a tax month.

If you pay late, you can expect an notice online or a letter from HMRC. Interest is charged daily at 2.75 per cent, and you will be charged a penalty.

• Provide P60s for current employees – P60s are required for every employee who is working for you on 5 April. You can order copies of the P60 forms from HMRC directly, or sometimes if you are using accounting software you can simply create a PDF to send out to employees. This must be completed by 31 May.

And you need to start the next tax year’s payrolls

As soon as one year ends, another one begins. When preparing for the next tax year, businesses need to prepare a payroll record and identify the correct tax codes for the new year for all employees. It is important, of course, to update your payroll software, and ensure you are using the correct version of the basic PAYE Tools.

There is an alternative – Outsource your Payroll Operation to us.

These days there are many online payroll packages and resources that you can call on if you want to do your company’s payroll yourself. Finding the right one to use is important of course, but, as with most things they can take time to get used to and use. And most of our clients find that time to run their payrolls id time they don’t have.

If you run a small business and you would prefer to outsource your payroll, then please contact us or call us on 0121 422 0550. We are always up to speed with all the current payroll legislation, so you can be sure that we do everything for you, payroll-wise, quickly, efficiently and accurately.