Employer Payment Summary (EPS)

Every time you pay your employees, you must notify HMRC by sending a Full Payment Submission (FPS) on or before the pay date. If there's no liability due or you don't have any active employees, you must notify HMRC of this. To do this, you send a nil payment EPS at the end of the tax month.

What if I submit an EPS containing an error?

You can’t resubmit an EPS submission.

If the error relates to a statutory payment, you must correct this by editing the relevant pay run. The next EPS will show the correction.

If you enter the wrong value for CIS Deductions suffered, you can correct this at the end of the next P32 tax reporting period. Enter the correct Year To Date (YTD) value within the next EPS you submit.

Sometimes, HMRC asks you to resubmit an earlier EPS. Use HMRC Basic Tools at gov.uk for this.

What if I correct a pay run in a previous tax reporting period?

The P32 Employer Payment Record shows any corrections made to earlier periods.

For example, you complete month one pay run and then edit an employees pay. If you haven't sent the EPS for this period, the edited values will update for month one.

If you’ve sent the EPS, the changes will reflect in the next period.

In month two, the month one NI and PAYE changes are in the P32 report. Changes show under Amendments from corrections made in earlier periods.

If you've offset a previous reclaim of your P32 liability in an earlier month from future P32s. You see this in the HMRC Refunds brought forward from previous P32 periods section.

What if I've used the wrong reporting frequency?

You can’t change your reporting frequency once you start to process pay in the current tax year. You need to either wait until the end of the tax year or restart and reprocess payroll. Ensure you select the correct reporting frequency.

Why doesn’t the National Insurance (NI) Allowance brought forward value reduce?

If you've forgotten to record the P32 payment for a previous tax reporting period. This can cause issues with the NI Allowance brought forward value.

For example, you print the P32 report in month two, but haven’t recorded the P32 payment for month one. The NI Allowance Brought forward value still shows as £10,500. It will show £10,500 minus the NI value reclaimed in month one.

This can result in you overclaiming the NI allowance. To avoid this, you must record the P32 payment for month one (submit the EPS), and then print the P32 report for month two.

What do I do if HMRC wants me to resend an earlier EPS?

You can't use Sage Payroll to resend an EPS.

Do this using HMRC Basic Tools at gov.uk.

HMRC gives support for this software themselves.

What if I haven't used all my allowance by the end of the tax year?

HMRC advises employers to apply any remaining Employment Allowance at the end of the tax year against current PAYE liabilities. For more information, read the HMRC article, Claiming Employment Allowance: further employer guidance at gov.uk.