I know questions about duplicate employments have done the rounds but this one appears to relate to an issue not previously addressed. I am close to tearing my hair out trying to get a response out of HMRC or Sage so just wondered whether anyone else has had the same issue.
We have several clients who are on annual schemes. Nothing unusual there. However, now we are receiving two coding notices for individual employees (directors, in reality) for several of our clients - all annual scheme ones. The only difference on the coding notices, other than the actual code, is the Works Number. On one it will be the RTI ID, on the other it will be the works ID from the payslip.
HMRC have told us that it is a known issue with Sage and that Sage need to change the RTI ID to the Works ID. Sage are saying they can change the RTI ID but only to a different RTI ID - that bit I understand. We have taken it through the complaints procedure with HMRC on one client and HMRC have basically come back and said that Sage need to fix it, then we can submit our next FPS and all will be fine and dandy.
Two issues with that - the next FPS will be month 12 this year when we process the annual employees, so it's not going to fix it for the P60 this year. Secondly, Sage say they can't change it in the way that HMRC want them to.
Has anyone else dealt with this issue or can anyone advise me where to go next in order to try to get a resolution? As I say, I've tried Sage's helpline. I've also tried Online Service (who relayed it to Technical Services) and the Employers Helpline at HMRC.
Thanks.
Replies (5)
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Had the same issue
I have had the same issue, for myself as it happens.
I got a coding notice quoting my RTI number, and also another quoting my works number.
Not unreasonably, when doing my SA last year, I put my 'works' number on the SA return - leading to HMRC thinking I had two employments, - and giving me a D0 code..
The only fix, in my case, was to tell HMRC to cancel one of the employments (the works number one).
Just seems an odd way to carry on. Surely bigger employers (we only have 30 staff) would want HMRC correspondence to quote the works number?
Inadvertently
I suppose I created my own problem by quoting the works number on my SA return.
Had I not done so, I wouldn't have ended up with the duplicate employments.
The rest of the staff all appear to be on 'sensible' tax codes, so I don't think anyone else is affected.
After this, I did look at our RTI filings, and noticed everyone is referred to via the RTI number.
Whether Sage has the option to report via works number I don't know.
Not mandatory to quote ID
As I understand it, Sage insists on automatically generating an ID for every employee and then on quoting it in the FPS, but according to the RTI specifications (scroll down a bit), the Payroll ID is not even required, unless it is a second employment with the employer in the same tax year.
Your complaint should be directed to Sage. They should amend their program to stop quoting their internally generated RTI ID and instead, to quote your Works Number/Payroll ID, if you have chosen to enter one, or nothing if you haven't. This is what Moneysoft does.
Better still, change to Moneysoft for your payroll.