As an employer running payroll, you need to report your employee’s pay, any payrolled benefits, and deductions in a Full Payment Submission (FPS) on or before their payday (unless an exception applies).

You will also need to send an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) by the 19th of the following tax month for HMRC to apply any reduction (for example, statutory pay) on what you’ll owe from your FPS.

If you’ve not paid any employees in a tax month, send an EPS instead of a FPS.

Employer information

Report these in every FPS and EPS.

Field	Description
HMRC office number	The first part of your employer PAYE reference (3 digits) — this is on the letter HMRC sent you when you registered as an employer. You can also find it on P6 or P9 coding notices
Employer PAYE reference	The second part of your employer PAYE reference (the letters and numbers after the slash)
Accounts Office reference	Format ‘123PA00012345’ — you’ll get this from HMRC after you’ve registered as an employer. It’s available online if you pay electronically or via your payment booklet P30BC if you do not
Related tax year	The Income Tax year that this report relates to

Include these if they apply to your business.

Field	Description
Employer’s Contracted Out Number (ECON)	Get this from your contracting-out certificate or pension scheme administrator
SA UTR	Your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) for Self Assessment (SA) if you’re a sole trader, or the partnership UTR if you’re a partnership
COTAX reference	Your Corporation Tax reference, if you’re a limited company. If you have more than one, enter the reference for the company responsible for employment contracts

Employee information

Report this information in a FPS every time you pay an employee.

Field	Description
National Insurance number	The employee’s National Insurance number. Leave blank if you do not know it, but make sure you enter their address
Title	—
Surname or family name	—
Forename or given name	—
Second forename or given name	—
Initials	Only needed if you do not know their full forename(s)
Date of birth	—
Gender	—
Address	Enter their address if they’re a new employee, you do not know their National Insurance number or the employee’s address has changed
UK postcode	It is important that if you enter your employee’s post code, you ensure that it is correct. If you enter an incorrect post code this could result in the employee’s address being changed on our systems leading to correspondence being issued to the wrong address.
Foreign country	Only enter their country of residence if they live outside the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man. Also complete the ‘Address’ field
Payroll ID	You can assign payroll IDs to your employees. The ID must be unique. Use a different one if you re-employ someone (if you do this within the same tax year restart their year-to-date information from ‘£0.00’) or have an employee who has more than one job in the same PAYE scheme. If you reuse a previous payroll ID you’ll create a duplicate record and report payroll incorrectly
Payroll ID changed indicator	Only set the payroll ID changed indicator when reporting payroll ID changes and ensure both the ‘OLD’ and ‘NEW’ payroll ID is entered. You should not include the original start date. Do not put ‘Yes’ if you used a different payroll ID when you re-employed someone who left in the same tax year. You should ensure that the year to date financial data cumulates from that on the previous submission.
Old payroll ID for this employment	Only enter their old ID if it’s changed since your last FPS. You must not complete this if you are re-employing someone. If you do not supply it, and they have more than one job in your PAYE scheme, your PAYE bill may be calculated incorrectly
Irregular payment pattern indicator	Only put ‘Yes’ if the employee is not being paid regularly (for example, they’re a casual employee or on long-term sick leave) or if you’re not going to pay them for 3 months or more

Pay and deductions

Report information about each employee’s pay and deductions in a FPS.

Pay and deductions made this period

Field	Description
Taxable pay	The total pay to the employee that is taxable (even if tax is not due) in this period, including any benefits in kind which you have taxed via the payroll
Tax deducted or refunded	—
Student Loan repayment recovered	—
Postgraduate Loan repayment recovered	—
Pay after statutory deductions	Their net pay after you’ve deducted tax, National Insurance contributions and Student Loan repayments. Do not include payments you’re including in ‘Non-tax or National Insurance contribution payment’
Deductions from net pay	Any other deductions you’ve taken for example, child maintenance payments (do not include tax, National Insurance contributions and Student Loan repayments)
On strike	Only put ‘Yes’ if you reduced your employee’s pay because they were on strike
Non-tax or National Insurance contribution payment	Any payment made to the employee that is not subject to PAYE tax or National Insurance contributions that has been sent with the ‘salary’ payment for this period
Student Loan Plan type	Select the student loan plan type that your employee is on. If you do not know, your employee should check with Student Loans Company, otherwise default to plan type 1 until you receive a student loan start notice (SL1)

Year to date totals

Field name	Description
Taxable pay to date	The total taxable pay to date in this employment only, including any benefits that have been taxed through the payroll, including this payment
Total tax to date	—
Total Student Loan repayment recovered to date	—
Total Postgraduate Loan repayment recovered to date	—

If you’ve employed the same person more than once in a tax year, report for their current employment only.

Pension deductions

Field	Description
Employee pension contributions paid under ‘net pay arrangements’	Pension contributions paid under ‘net pay arrangements’ in this pay period
Employee pension contributions not paid under a ‘net pay arrangement’	Contributions taken from their pay after deducting tax and National Insurance contributions in this period
Employee pension contributions paid under ‘net pay arrangements’ year to date	The amount of pension contributions your employee paid under the ‘net pay arrangements’, to date, in this employment, within the tax year
Employee pension contributions not paid under a ‘net pay arrangement’ year to date	The amount of pension contributions that are not paid under the ‘net pay arrangements’, to date, in this employment, within the tax year

Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption,adoption and shared parental and neonatal care pay

Field	Description
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) year to date	—
Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) year to date	—
Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) year to date	—
Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) year to date	—
Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNCP) year to date	—
ShPP: Partner surname or family name	Only put this when you report ShPP for the first time for this employee
ShPP: Partner forename or given name	Only put this when you report ShPP for the first time for this employee
ShPP: Partner second forename or given name	Only put this when you report ShPP for the first time for this employee
ShPP: Partner National Insurance number	Only put this when you report ShPP for the first time for this employee

If you pay benefits through payroll

Enter this information if you’ve agreed with HMRC to tax benefits through payroll, instead of reporting in the normal way.

Field	Description
Items subject to Class 1 National Insurance only	—
Benefits this period taxed via payroll	Also include this in ‘Taxable pay in this period’
Benefits taxed via payroll year to date	—

Employee pay information

Report details of each payment you make an employee in a FPS.

Field name	Description
Employee tax code	—
Employee tax code: Week 1/Month 1 indicator	Only put ‘Yes’ if their tax code has ‘W1’ or ‘M1’ at the end
Employee hours normally worked	Put ‘A’ if less than 16 hours, ‘B’ if 16 to 23.99 hours, ‘C’ if 24 to 29.99 hours, or ‘D’ if 30 hours or more. Put ‘E’ if you do not pay your employee regularly or you pay them a workplace pension or annuity
Pay frequency	Put ‘W1’ if weekly, ‘W2’ if fortnightly, ‘W4’ if every 4 weeks, ‘M1’ if monthly, ‘M3’ if quarterly, ‘M6’ if twice a year, ‘MA’ if annually, ‘IO’ if a one-off payment, or ‘IR’ if you pay your employee irregularly
Payment date	The date you paid them, not the date you run your payroll. Use the normal payday if it falls on a non-banking day
Tax week number	The week you paid them if you pay them weekly, fortnightly or every 4 weeks
Tax month number	The month you paid them if you pay them monthly, quarterly, twice a year or annually
Number of earnings periods covered by payment	—
Bacs hash code	Only put this if you’re paying them through Bacs using your own Service User Number (SUN) — there is no longer a requirement to complete this, but it can still be reported
Aggregated earnings indicator	Only put ‘Yes’ if you’ve added the earnings from more than one job to work out their National Insurance

Late reporting reason

If you send a FPS after your employee’s payday, let HMRC know why in the ‘Late reporting reason’ field.

HMRC code	Situation	When to report
G	You have a reasonable excuse	As soon as possible
G	You are paying foreign tax on your employee’s behalf and it is taking longer than usual to calculate the PAYE and National Insurance contributions on that tax	As soon as possible and no later than one month after usual reporting date — select ‘Late reporting reason’ code G
H	You correct an earlier payroll report	On your next regular FPS, or an additional FPS, report the correct payment details. Send by the 19th of the tax month after your original FPS for HMRC to show the correction in that month’s PAYE bill
F	You have an employee who’s either paid less than £96£123 a week or has worked with you for less than a week	Within 7 days of paying your employee
D	You pay your employee an expense or benefit where you must pay National Insurance contributions, but not Income Tax, through payroll. This depends on the benefit	Within 14 days of the end of the tax month
F	You pay your employee based on their work on the day (for example, harvest workers paid based on how much they pick)	Within 7 days of paying your employee
A	You’re an overseas employer paying an expat employee, or you pay them through a third party	By the 19th of the tax month after making the payment
B	You pay your employee in shares at less than market value	Usually by the 19th of the tax month of giving them the shares — contact HMRC for complex situations
C	You make any other non-cash payment (for example, vouchers or credit tokens) to your employee	By the 19th of the tax month after making the payment

If HMRC disagrees or you do not send a FPS or EPS, they may send you a filing notice through PAYE Online or your commercial payroll software package. Penalties for late reporting started from 6 October 2014.

National Insurance

Include information about National Insurance in your FPS when you pay an employee £96£123 or more a week.

For employees paid less, you only need to include this information if you’re not required to report their earnings for tax (for example, you’re an overseas employer that does not need to pay tax in the UK).

Field	Description
National Insurance category letter	Your employee’s National Insurance category letter. You can use up to 4 for each payment
Freeport and Investment Zone special tax sites employee workplace postcode	Put the employees’ workplace postcode. Only put this if you are claiming Freeport and Investment Zone employer National Insurance contributions relief and using a Freeport or Investment Zone specific National Insurance category letter. This must be a UK postcode. If your employee is based in a designated Freeport or Investment Zone special tax site which does not have a postcode assigned by Royal Mail, contact the employer helpline for more information. If you make a mistake by submitting an incorrect employee workplace postcode, use the correct workplace postcode from your next regular FPS.
Gross earnings for National Insurance contributions in this period	The total pay that’s subject to National Insurance contributions this period — usually all payments £96£123 a week or over. Also include pay below this if you’re not required to report it for tax
Gross earnings for National Insurance contributions year to date	The total pay subject to National Insurance contributions this tax year
Earnings at the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) year to date	The total pay at £125£123 a week (£542(£533 a month) or over. Do not include any smaller payments, even if you’re not required to report it for tax
Earnings above LEL up to and including the Primary Threshold (PT) year to date	The total pay between £125£123 and £242 a week, or £542£533 and £1048 a month
Earnings above the PT, up to and including the Upper Earnings Limit (UEL) year to date	The total pay between £242 and £967 a week, or £1048 and £4189 a month
Employee contributions payable this period	The primary contributions (employee’s National Insurance contributions) deducted from your employee’s pay this period. If you do not pay an employee in a pay period enter 0.00
Employee contributions payable year to date	The total primary contributions (employee’s National Insurance contributions) deducted from your employee’s pay. If you do not pay an employee in a pay period put the same figure as on your last FPS
Total of employer’s contributions payable in this pay period	The secondary contributions (employer’s National Insurance contributions) you need to pay this period. If you do not pay an employee in a pay period enter 0.00
Total of employer’s contributions payable year to date	The total secondary contributions (employer’s National Insurance contributions). If you do not pay an employee in a pay period put the same figure as on your last FPS
Scheme Contracted Out Number (SCON)	DoOnly notput completethis if reportingyou run a contracted-out workplace pension scheme and your employee’s National Insurance contributionscategory forletter taxis yearsD, 2016E, toI, 2017K, onwardsL, N, O or V. You can find your SCON on your contracting-out certificate or from your pension provider

Report this National Insurance information when you pay a director.

Field	Description
Director’s National Insurance contribution calculation method	Put ‘AN’ if you’re using the standard annual method of work out the director’s National Insurance contributions, or ‘AL’ if you’re using the alternative method
Week of director’s appointment	Put the tax week the director was appointed

EPS: what to report

Send an EPS by the 19th to claim any reduction on what you’ll owe HMRC (for example, statutory pay) from your FPS sent the previous tax month. If you’ve not paid any employees in a tax month, send an EPS instead of an FPS.

Include your employer information as well as the information below.

Reclaiming statutory pay for parents and Construction Industry Scheme deductions

Fill in these fields in your EPS if you:

• reclaim statutory maternity, paternity, adoption,adoption and shared parental bereavement and neonatal care pay — you can reclaim 92%, or 108.5%103% if your business qualifies for Small Employers’ Relief
• made Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions and you are a Limited Company

If you run more than one payroll under the same PAYE employer reference, include the total amount of reductions for all those payrolls.

Field	Description
Tax month	Put which tax month the EPS credit is for
SMP reclaimed this tax year	Put how much statutory maternity payment you’ve claimed
SMP National Insurance contribution compensation recovered this tax year	Put how much National Insurance contributions compensation you’ve recovered through Small Employers’ Relief
SPP reclaimed this tax year	Put how much statutory paternity payment you’ve reclaimed
SPP National Insurance contribution compensation recovered this tax year	Put how much compensation you’ve recovered through Small Employers’ Relief
SAP reclaimed this tax year	Put how much statutory adoption payment you’ve reclaimed
SAP National Insurance contribution compensation recovered this tax year	Put how much National Insurance contributions compensation you’ve reclaimed through Small Employers’ Relief
ShPP reclaimed this tax year	Put how much ShPP you’ve reclaimed this tax year
ShPP recovered this tax yearyear’	Put how much National Insurance contributions compensation you’ve recovered through Small Employers’ Relief
SNCP reclaimed this tax year	Put how much SNCP you’ve reclaimed this tax year
SNCP recovered this tax year	Put how much National Insurance contributions compensation you’ve recovered through Small Employers’ Relief
CIS deductions suffered	If you’re a limited company that has had CIS deductions made from payments received for work in the construction industry, enter the total amount of CIS deductions suffered year to date

Bank details

Include details of the bank you want HMRC to pay into if you’re overpaid or you’ve reclaimed any statutory maternity, paternity,paternity adoption,or neonataladoption pay or CIS deductions.

Field	Description
Name of account holder	—
Account number	—
Branch sort code	—
Building society reference	If applicable

You did not pay any employees in a period

Send an EPS with the following information by the 19th after the tax month you did not pay any employees. The tax month starts on the 6th. Do not send an FPS.

Field	Description
No payment for period	Put ‘Yes’ to tell HMRC you did not pay any employees
No payment dates from	Put the 6th of the first month where you did not pay any employees
No payment dates to	Put the 5th of the last month where you did not pay any employees
Period of inactivity from	Tell HMRC in advance if you will not be paying any employees for a minimum period of one month, and a maximum of 12 months. Put the 6th of the first month where you will not pay employees — you can only notify from the beginning of the next tax month
Period of inactivity to	Put the 5th of the last month where you will not pay any employees

Claim Employment Allowance

You could get up to £10,500£5,000 a year off your National Insurance if you claim Employment Allowance.

Field

Description

Employment Allowance indicator

Put ‘Yes’ to claim the allowance. This is your declaration that you’ve checked your eligibility to receive Employment Allowance. If you do not check your eligibility or you answer incorrectly you may have to repay any Employment Allowance you have received Employment allowance must be claimed each tax year. The claim will be retained for the full tax year and the following year you’ll need to submit a new claim. Only select ‘No’ if you are not eligible to claim or want to withdraw a claim. If your claim is rejected you’ll receive a Generic Notification Service (GNS) message to advise you.

When claiming Employment Allowance you must provide your business sector on your EPS if your business is undertaking ‘economic activity’. If you’re involved in economic activity, which means you are putting goods or services on a market, de minimis state aid rules will apply to you in relation to the allowance and your business sector(s) is needed as part of your claim.

Field	Description
Employer is in the agriculture sector	Select this field if you’re involved in economic activity and your business is in the agriculture sector.
Employer is in the fisheries and aquaculture sector	Select this field if you’re involved in economic activity and your business is in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
Employer is in the road transport sector	Select this field if you’re involved in economic activity and your business is in the road transport sector.
Employer is in the industrial/other sector	This sector should be selected if your business is undertaking economic activity and is not within the agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture or road transport sectors. Examples of businesses choosing this option could be services, utilities, merchandising, manufacturing. Businesses such as a hairdressers or restaurant would come under this sector as they offer goods and services. Select this field if you’re involved in economic activity and your business is in the industrial/other sector.
State aid rules do not apply to the employer	This should only be chosen when a business does not undertake any economic activity. For example, some charities, community amateur sports clubs or a person employing someone to provide personal care may not be engaging in economic activity and therefore fall outside of de minimis State aid rules. An example of this could be a small educational charity employing staff to teach English as a second language at no cost in the local community. These employers are still eligible for the allowance but it will not be classed as a de minimis State aid in these circumstances.

Report Apprenticeship Levy

From April 2017, employers who have an annual pay bill greater than £3 million, or who are connected to other employers by virtue of the connected companies or connected charities rules, which in total have an annual pay bill of more than £3 million, need to tell HMRC about their Apprenticeship Levy.

Field	Description
Tax year	Put the tax year to which the return of the Apprenticeship Levy relates
Employer’s HMRC office number	—
Employer‘s PAYE reference	Put the PAYE reference to which the return of the Apprenticeship Levy relates
Employer’s accounts office reference	—
Annual Apprenticeship Levy allowance amount	Amount of annual Apprenticeship Levy allowance the employer is allocating to the employer’s PAYE reference
Apprenticeship Levy due year to date	Amount of Apprenticeship Levy liability due to date which the employer has calculated
Tax month	Put the tax month to which the return of Apprenticeship Levy relates

New employees

When an employee starts working for you, register them with HMRC by including this information in your FPS the first time you pay them.

Field	Description
Start date	Only fill this in the first time you pay a new employee
Starter declaration	Put the starter declaration that you’ve worked out. Do not put anything for new pensioners, or employees seconded from abroad
Student Loan indicator	Put ‘Yes’ if your employee needs you to make Student Loan deductions
Address	—
UK postcode	—
Foreign country	Only put their country of residence if they live outside the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man
Passport number	Include this if you reviewed your employee’s passport to check they can work in the UK

There are special rules for what to fill in if you:

• pay a workplace pension
• take on an employee seconded from abroad

When an employee leaves

Report this information when an employee leaves or if you close your PAYE scheme.

Field	Description
Date of leaving	—
Payment after leaving indicator	Put ‘Yes’ if you pay an employee after you’ve sent an FPS with their leaving date (for example, you’re paying them after giving them a P45)

Workplace pensions

Report this information when you’re paying a workplace pension or annuity.

Field	Description
Occupational pension indicator	Put ‘Yes’ if you make occupational pension payments
Annual amount of occupational pension	Only put this the first time you pay someone from an HMRC-registeredHMRC-registered workplace pension scheme. Otherwise leave this field blank (do not enter £0.00)
Employee receiving occupational pension because they’re a recently bereaved spouse/civil partner	Put ‘Yes’ if this applies
Trivial commutation payment type	If you’re paying a lump sum — put ‘A’ for a trivial commutation lump sum (TCLS), ‘B’ if it’s from a personal pension scheme, or ‘C’ if it’s from a workplace or public service pension scheme
Trivial commutation payment	The lump sum paid. Also fill in the ‘Taxable pay to date’ and ‘Taxable pay in this period’ fields, and put any non-taxable amount in the ‘Non-tax or National Insurance contribution payment’ field
Payment to a non-individual	Put ‘Yes’ if you make payments to a personal representative, trustee or corporate organisation etc

End-of-year or final reports

You’ll need to complete certain annual reports and tasks to prepare for the next tax year, which starts on 6 April.

Report this information in your final FPS or EPS of the tax year. You will also need to fill in the relevant fields if it’s your last report because you’re closing your PAYE scheme.

Field	Description new
Final submission for year	Put ‘Yes’ to tell HMRC this is your final payroll report of the tax year
Ceased indicator	Put ‘Yes’ if this is the last report because you’re closing your PAYE scheme. Also enter ‘Date scheme ceased’ and the ‘Date of leaving’ for all your employees. Do not fill in ‘Final submission for year’
Date scheme ceased	—