RTI - EPS submission dates

RTI - EPS submission dates

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I thought it may be handy to have a summary of when Employer Payment Summaries (EPS) can be submitted under RTI as there is I believe a quirk in the system to do with nil EPS submissions.

I believe they can be submitted on the following dates:

Advise HMRC of a statutory payment recovery, CIS, etc - can be submitted up to the 19th of the following month it relates to. For example you wish to reduce the June tax month (6/6 to 5/7) liability the EPS must be sent by 19th July. 

This means that effectively you have from 20th of the month to 19th to send the EPS. For example for June tax month you would have to report from 20th June to 19th July as anything submitted before 19th June would relate to the May tax month (to 5th June).

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payerti/reporting/when-to-report.htm#5

Advise HMRC of NIL EPS:

You must submit an EPS and indicate no payment is due after the end, but within 14 days of, the end of the tax month.

For example, if you didn't pay anyone for the tax month June (between 6 June and 5 July) you should send the EPS between 6 July and 19 July.

Is this correct?

I have seen this before on this site but it is buried somewhere in other threads as I have tried searching.

As an aside I find it an issue with this system that you have to submit these reports in these periods (especially the small window for a nil EPS) as we process some payrolls say on 10th May but we will have to wait until after 19th May before we could send a EPS (if applicable).  The HMRC system should pick up a specified month from a report you make.

Replies (6)

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By gary.ging
03rd Apr 2013 11:20

Yes, you are correct.

Yes, there are different submission windows for the EPS depending on the reason and the examples you have given are correct.

You can also send a single EPS for future periods where you know that there will be no payments made, so you don't have to send a nil EPS each month, but the submission windows don't make this straight forward.

For example, if you know on 6th April that there will be no payment made in the first 6 months and you want to inform HMRC then you need to do the following:

On 6th April, or any date up to 5th May, send an EPS indicating that there is a nil payment for months 2 - 6On 6th May, or any date up to 19th May, send an EPS indicating that the next payment due (month 1) is a nil payment

​HMRC are aware that the specification design for the EPS is not great and expect to make amendments for 2014/15.

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Tom McClelland
By TomMcClelland
03rd Apr 2013 12:20

Almost but not quite

I think this is wrong:

Quote:
This means that effectively you have from 20th of the month to 19th to send the EPS. For example for June tax month you would have to report from 20th June to 19th July as anything submitted before 19th June would relate to the May tax month (to 5th June).

You can't file June until 6th July. The general principle is that you can't file any month until it has finished. So for June the filing window would be the fortnight between 6th July and 19th July. Effectively all normal EPS filing windows are the 6th to the 19th of the following month. It doesn't matter what is on the CIS, be it SSP recovery, or CIS Suffered, or whatever, the filing window is the same.

As Gary notes there is also a facility for future predictions of nil months. Unfortunately as Gary also pointed out it is somewhat broken and we don't advise its use. Hopefully HMRC will fix it for 2014/15.

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Replying to gilderda:
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By Mister E
03rd Apr 2013 12:40

I wondered that

TomMcClelland wrote:

I think this is wrong:

Quote:
This means that effectively you have from 20th of the month to 19th to send the EPS. For example for June tax month you would have to report from 20th June to 19th July as anything submitted before 19th June would relate to the May tax month (to 5th June).

You can't file June until 6th July. The general principle is that you can't file any month until it has finished. So for June the filing window would be the fortnight between 6th July and 19th July. Effectively all normal EPS filing windows are the 6th to the 19th of the following month. It doesn't matter what is on the CIS, be it SSP recovery, or CIS Suffered, or whatever, the filing window is the same.

 

That was my original understanding, but HMRC guidance here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payerti/reporting/when-to-report.htm#5 states

Once you've sent an EPS to HMRC, they can then offset the amounts you want to recover against the payments you're due to make. So if you want the deduction to apply to a specific month, you'll need to send the EPS before your payment to HMRC is due on the 19th of the following month. For example, if you wish to inform HMRC that you are reducing the June tax month (6 June to 5 July) liability the EPS showing these details must be received in HMRC before 19 July. If HMRC does not receive the EPS until 20 July it will apply the reduction to the July tax month.

 

Suggests to me that an EPS sent on 20th July WILL be taken for the July month starting 6th July so the filing window is 20th to 19th each month.  Otherwise every EPS HMRC get that does not fall in the period 6th to 19th will be rejected/lost ?

Any thoughts?

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Tom McClelland
By TomMcClelland
03rd Apr 2013 12:58

You could be right

Ah, maybe the strong enforcement of the 14 day window is for nil EPS only. (frankly I don't understand why they have this restriction on nil EPS, why not allow one to be filed for the current month? No logical reason for preventing it)

I could do some tests on HMRC's test servers, if I get time.

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By Mister E
03rd Apr 2013 15:48

days to go

It's "good to know" that with days to go before RTI 'officially' starts this is still causing questions and is not clear

Sigh....

Be interested if you do get a chance to test it what the outcome in.  Thanks. :)

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By dnicholson
03rd Apr 2013 16:49

First response is right

I think Gary is right on this one.

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