A pre-recorded message on HMRC’s helpline states: “We’re aware of an issue for some employers trying to submit their RTI returns using HMRC’s Basic PAYE tools. We are investigating this issue and will provide an update early next week.
“Employers should pay their employees as normal even if they have problems with their payroll and can’t submit their PAYE until after they have paid their employees. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Basic PAYE Tools (BPT) is a free computer software package provided by HMRC for employers with nine or fewer employees.
It should work out the tax and National Insurance contributions for employees in each pay period and report the payroll information to the Revenue.
However, in some cases, it is currently displaying an error message when submitting RTI.
An HMRC spokesman told Payroll World: “The roll out of RTI is progressing well. Since 6 April over one million PAYE schemes have successfully started to report PAYE in real time. This includes over 140,000 BPT users successfully submitting returns.
“As with any major change, a few initial problems have been identified and these are being resolved quickly. The issue referred here is not a BPT fault, but we have published guidance to help those employers affected to resolve it.
“The vast majority of BPT users who have already started to report PAYE in real time are successfully submitting returns without any issue.”
Further guidance for employers experiencing difficulty submitting RTI using HMRC’s software is available here
