Submission errors

Summary

How to troubleshoot submission errors in Sage Payroll.

Description

Errors can appear when submitting or retrieving Real Time Information (RTI) data to and from HMRC.

This includes:

Full Payment Submission (FPS)
Employer Payment Summary (EPS)
Supplementary FPS
HMRC notifications

Select your error below to see an explanation and detailed steps to resolve the error.

Resolution

Before you can resolve the issue, you must find what the error message is. If you already know what it is, check the list below.

▼How to find the full error number

Select Summary in the menu bar.
Find the HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) Scheme section.
Where the submission shows as failed, select Resolve.
Make a note of the error number.
Find the error number from the list below, and work through the solution.

List of errors

▼Error 1046

This happens if:

Your Government Gateway credentials or business details are incorrect in Sage Payroll
Your PAYE For Employers account isn't active
The Government Gateway is busy at the time of your submission and can't validate your details

To resolve this, follow the steps in our ERROR: '1046. Your details aren't recognised by HMRC. Check your company information...' guide.

▼Error 4065

This error can occur if:

There's a special character in Sage Payroll that HMRC doesn't accept, such as ~ @ # $ [ \ ] ^ _ { }
Mandatory information is missing from your Payroll data

To resolve this error check for spaces and special characters in the employee's name, address, and NI fields.

To do this:

Select the Employees tab.
Select the employee name you want to check.
In the Personal Details section, ensure the employee's NI Number is correct. Remove any spaces from the start or end of the text.
Check the Forename and Surname fields are correct. Remove any spaces from the start or end of the text.
In the Contact Details section, select each field that contains the employee address. Remove any spaces from the start or end of the text.
If there’s nothing in the Street 2 field, you’ll need to enter the missing details. This could mean splitting the house number and street name into different fields.
Pay particular attention to the Postcode, as a double space between numbers will cause the issue.

TIP:

An odd character such as the letter O instead of a zero will cause this issue.
Select Save, and re-try the submission.
Repeat for each employee included in the submission for this pay run.

If the issue persists, check there are no special characters or spaces at the start or end of your business address.

To do this:

In Sage Payroll, select your name in the navigation bar.
Select Manage account.
Select Manage business information, to check the business address.
If the address has any special characters or spaces at the start or end, select Edit business details.
Select Save and retry the submission.

▼Error 4084

This error occurs as HMRC doesn't allow any negative values.

It can occur if:

You refund an amount that's greater than the YTD total

For example, an employee’s pension year-to-date total is £20 and you refund them £30. This error will occur because HMRC won't accept a value of -£10.

This is also common if you refund the pension contributions in the first period of the new tax year.

There's a negative value in an employee's pay. This could include NI or an opening balance, among other things

To resolve the error:

The steps to resolve this depend on whether you're processing a pension refund for contributions taken in the previous year. If you're processing a refund for a previous year, follow steps to ▼process a manual pension refund.

Edit the pension to check the type of contribution that the employee's pension was.
Select the Pay Runs tab, then the relevant period.
From the Edit pay run dropdown, select Edit pay.
Select the checkbox to confirm you understand the impact of editing a pay run, then Confirm.
Select the employee.
From the Manage Enrolment dropdown, select Opt Out/Leave.
Select the Refund paid directly by provider checkbox then select Amend.

NOTE:

This stops the refund from creating a negative YTD value. You'll still need to process the pension refund manually.
From the Add Payment dropdown, select Add a new payment.
The Payment Category and Payment Type will depend on the type of contribution the pension used. If the pension:
- Deducted before tax then select Payment Category as Salary and Payment Type as Taxable Non-Niable
- Deducted after tax then select Payment Category as Expenses and Payment Type as Business Expenses
- Was salary sacrifice then select Payment Category as Salary and Payment Type as Other Salary Payment
Enter the payment name and description.
Clear all the checkboxes in the Include in Calculation of section.
Enter the refund amount and select Save corrections.

This will allow you to refund the employee without triggering the 4084 error.

If you're not processing a pension refund, check opening balances and other values:

Select the Year End tab.
From the Tax year to report dropdown, select the relevant tax year.
Select Review Employee Pay (P11), then View P11 for all employees.
Check that there are no negative values and any opening balances are correct.

If the opening balance is incorrect, amend it using the steps below:

Select the Employees tab.
Choose the employee you need to amend.
Go to the Opening Balance tab and correct the values.

NOTE:

Opening balances only appear if you migrated to Sage Payroll and entered opening balances during the setup process.

Retry the submission. If the error persists, contact us for further support.

▼Error 4085

This error can occur if:

There's a special character in Sage Payroll that HMRC doesn't accept, such as ~ @ # $ [ \ ] ^ _ { }
Mandatory information is missing from your Payroll data

To resolve this error, check for spaces and special characters in the employee's name, address, and NI fields.

To do this:

Select the Employees tab.
Select the employee name you want to check.
In the Personal Details section, ensure the employee's NI Number is correct. Remove any spaces from the start or end of the text.
Check the Forename and Surname fields are correct. Remove any spaces from the start or end of the text.
In the Contact Details section, select each field that contains the employee address. Remove any spaces from the start or end of the text.
If there’s nothing in the Street 2 field, you’ll need to enter the missing details. This could mean splitting the house number and street name into different fields.
Pay particular attention to the Postcode, as a double space between numbers will cause the issue.

TIP:

An odd character such as the letter O instead of a zero will cause this issue
Select Save, and re-try the submission.
Repeat for each employee included in the submission for this pay run.

If the issue persists, check there are no special characters or spaces at the start or end of your business address.

To do this:

In Sage Payroll, select your name in the navigation bar.
Select Manage account.
Select Manage business information, to check the business address.
If the address has any special characters or spaces at the start or end, select Edit business details.
Select Save and retry the submission.

▼Error 5001

This error occurs if you’re submitting information for a previous tax year. HMRC won’t accept the submission.

To resolve this, contact HMRC’s Employer Helpline on 0300 200 3200. HMRC can help with manual submissions of payroll information for a previous tax year.

▼Error 7801

This occurs if the Accounts Office Ref or PAYE Reference in Sage Payroll isn’t correct.

To resolve this error:

Select Settings from the menu bar.
Select the Payroll Settings option.
Check the Accounts office reference and Employer PAYE reference field.

TIP:

If unsure, log in to the Government Gateway at online.hmrc.gov.uk to verify these details.
Select Save, and retry the submission.

▼Error 7802/7082

This occurs when HMRC aren't expecting RTI submissions for the PAYE scheme.

This error can occur if:

You haven’t activated your online services account for PAYE submissions
You act as an agent without your client's authorisation
HMRC have closed your PAYE scheme. Periodically, HMRC will automatically close PAYE schemes that have had no activity for some time

To resolve this, contact HMRC’s Employer Helpline on 0300 200 3600 and ask them to activate your account.

If you’re submitting as an agent, contact HMRC’s Employer Helpline on 0300 200 3600 for help with checking your agent services account setup.

▼Error 7782/7953/7882

This occurs when there’s an invalid Corporation tax reference.

To resolve this error:

Select Settings from the menu bar.
Select the Payroll Settings option.
Check the Corporation tax reference is correct.
Select Save.
Retry the submission.

If you aren’t sure of your Corporation tax reference, contact HMRC on 0300 200 3200.

▼Error 7806

This means HMRC aren't expecting this employer to start filing RTI returns until a later date.

You may have just registered your PAYE scheme with HMRC.

It may not yet be live.

To resolve this, contact HMRC’s Employer Helpline on 0300 200 3200 and ask them to check your RTI start date.

▼Error 7815

This means HMRC has cancelled your employer scheme.

This indicates that there has been £0 RTI submissions for at least three months. If this happens, HMRC can close the company’s payroll scheme.

To resolve this, contact HMRC’s Employer Helpline on 0300 200 3200.

▼Error 7818

This means HMRC has cancelled your employer scheme.

This indicates that there has been £0 RTI submissions for at least three months. If this happens, HMRC can close the company’s payroll scheme.

To resolve this, contact HMRC’s Employer Helpline on 0300 200 3200.

▼Error 7911

You're sending an EPS (Employer Payment Summary) to HMRC to make them aware there’s no payment due. You’re doing this before the 5th of the tax month.

To resolve this, wait until after the 5th of the tax month before you submit the return.

Refer to our Nil payment Employer Payment Summary (EPS) guide.

▼Any other error number

The errors we show come to us from HMRC at the time of the submission.

The errors listed in our article are the more common errors that occur.

If you are experiencing an error that we haven't listed, contact HMRC’s Employer Helpline on 0300 200 3200.

▼No error number

No error message at all could mean a problem in Payroll Settings.

Check the Accounts Office Reference Number and PAYE reference for invalid characters.

To check:

Select Settings from the menu bar.
Select the Payroll Settings option.
Check the Accounts office reference and Employer PAYE reference field.

TIP:

If unsure, log in to the Government Gateway at online.hmrc.gov.uk to verify these details.
Select Save, and retry the submission.

Solution Properties

Solution ID: 222001000101774
Last Modified Date: Mon Aug 24 13:57:16 UTC 2026
Views: 0

Submission errors

Summary

Description

Resolution

List of errors

This error can occur if:

To do this:

TIP:

To do this:

It can occur if:

To resolve the error:

NOTE:

NOTE:

This error can occur if:

To do this:

TIP:

To do this:

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This error can occur if:

To check:

TIP:

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