Error in Gov.uk website PAYE Payment reference

Error in Gov.uk website PAYE Payment reference

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I was reading about how to pay PAYE for a client and I noticed an error on the gov.uk website.

Has anyone noticed the error regarding the reference to use when paying PAYE?

https://www.gov.uk/pay-paye-tax/bank-details

Late or early payments

Add 4 numbers to the end of your 13-character Accounts Office reference to tell HMRC which tax month and year you’re paying for.

These extra numbers are made up of:

  • 2 digits for the tax month, eg ’01’ for month 1 (6 May to 5 June)
  • 2 digits for the year, eg ’14’ for 2014

Example To submit a late payment for month 2 (6 June to 5 July) in the tax year 2013 to 2014, add the digits ‘1402’ to the end of your reference number.

I submitted feedback saying that there is an error in the month numbers above.  6 May to 5 June is NOT Month 1, it is Month 2.

6 June to 5 July is NOT Month 2, it is Month 3.

I checked this with HMRC reference checker.  I thought it was strange that the month numbers would start from 0 and end in 11 according to gov.uk.

This can be really important because of problems of recovering overpayments from HMRC by using the wrong reference.

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Euan's picture
By Euan MacLennan
08th Oct 2014 11:43

You're quite right

I am afraid it is what we have to expect following the transfer of HMRC content to the over-simplified gov.uk website.

As you say, the HMRC PAYE reference checker still gives the correct answer.

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