Small Employers' Relief

Summary

How to check if your eligible for Small Employers' Relief (SER) and how to process it in Sage Payroll.

Description

If you pay your employees statutory parental payments, such as Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), you can reclaim some or all of it from the HMRC. The amount offsets against your other liabilities. This lets you easily track what you owe the HMRC each month or quarter.

NOTE:

You cannot reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).

How much you can reclaim depends on whether you’re classed as a small employer or not. A small employer reclaims 100% of the payment, plus an extra 8.5% (2025/26) or 9% (2026/27) relief. If you’re not a small employer, you can still reclaim 92%.

You reclaim the relief when you submit your Employer Payment Summary (EPS) which will then show on your P32 report.

To find out more, read Employer payment summary (EPS) submissions and P32 payments.

Resolution

Who qualifies for SER

SER is based on your employer and employee NI liability.

Your company qualifies for SER if:

  • Your NI contributions were £45,000 or less in the full tax year before the employee's qualifying week
  • in the case of adoption, the matching week

If you haven't been an employer for some or all of the tax year prior to the employee’s qualifying week, you must check your SER status with HMRC.

Register your SER eligibility

  1. Complete all pay runs for the current month or quarter.
  2. Select Summary from the menu bar.
  3. Within the HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) Scheme area select Actions then Record Payment / EPS.
  4. On the Eligible for small employer’s relief list, select Yes.

    NOTE:

    You can also state whether you’re eligible for Employment Allowance in the EPS submission.

  5. Enter the payment date, then select Next.
  6. If applicable, enter any CIS deductions suffered.
  7. Select Next.
  8. Enter your Government Gateway credentials, if not already saved.
  9. Select Submit.

Once registered, you’ll need to process your payroll with an eligible statutory payment for this to take affect.

Related Solutions

Recovering Statutory Maternity Pay

Recovering Statutory Paternity Pay

Solution Properties

Solution ID
222001000101729
Last Modified Date
Thu Oct 08 12:30:26 UTC 2026
Views
0