PAYE Accounts office payments

payrollpro

Is everyone else experiencing the nightmare of making PAYE payments now, or hearing horror stories from clients?

Just returned to a large client today to find another message from the accounts office in Shipley about a missing PAYE payment of some £250k, due mid December. I checked the account and lo, the sum has been registered and I suspected it had been misallocated. Spoke to the payments team here and yes they hadn't changed the reference number.

Now, according to the HMRC website the correct reference for a payment due in December is the accounts office number followed by 1308 (tax year 13 and month 08) so my request for a payment to be made had the right credentials but in their rush they had picked up an old reference, 1306, in error. Speaking to Shipley confirmed that the payment had infact been allocated to month 6 along with the one due for month 7 so he promised to reallocate the funds.

Astonishingly he then advised me not to quote the year and tax month extension to ordinary payments as it caused them many problems, even when the code was correct and they would rather not accept payments this way.

Now this is in complete contradiction to the reference checker on the website and also contrary to the instructions given out at the Employment Consultation Forum where the AAT represents all members on all PAYE matters.

Clearly something needs to go back to this forum in order to establish the true procedure and I wanted to know if others are experiencing the same difficulties so that we can raise the issue again, either here or at the working together group, or both.

Look forward to seeing your replies.

Payrollpro

Rozzi Rainbow

payrollpro wrote: »

Astonishingly he then advised me not to quote the year and tax month extension to ordinary payments as it caused them many problems, even when the code was correct and they would rather not accept payments this way.

This is my understanding of what we are meant to do now. I thought you only needed to quote the year and tax month if you are paying early or late, otherwise they would just allocate the payment to the current month. Makes things more simple as you don't need to worry about changing the reference number each month or quarter.

This is my understanding from reading this part of the website:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payinghmrc/paye.htm#2a

under "using the correct accounts office reference number".

It doesn't help when HMRC keep changing how they want things done! Hopefully this won't be an issue once RTI comes into force, as they will then know how much is due for each month or quarter, and should just be able to match the payments up as they go along regardless of which reference is quoted.

Dcollins

payrollpro wrote: »

Astonishingly he then advised me not to quote the year and tax month extension to ordinary payments as it caused them many problems, even when the code was correct and they would rather not accept payments this way.

Payrollpro

I've had two clients with PAYE payment reconciliation problems in the past few months. In one case HMRC sent me a letter saying the client had overpaid, and the client received a letter dated the same day, quoting an underpayment. After a couple of phone calls it seems that some payments have been mis-allocated by HMRC. My client received the same advice that you did. They now make monthly payments without the month reference.

Looking forward to year-end ::tongue_smilie:

JodieR

I'm pretty sure that when you go to make a payment using barclays it only accepts the payment ref with the month & year reference tagged on the end. I couldn't see a way to make a payment without them.

payrollpro

Yep JodieR I have the same problem, many of the banks, especially with business accounts try to match the requirements of the payee by using the correct format. When the changes started Barclays had real problems matching the new requirement and I was left with constant letters but now that they comply HMRC have change back again.

Would members like this matter raised at the Working Together meetings?

Payrollpro

TyneandWear

Apologies for slow response - things being rather hectic at this time of year. Just wanted to let you
know this issue has been highlighted, and passed on to HMRC, via their local WT co-ordinator.

payrollpro

Thanks for that, i too intend to raise it at the Reading WT and I had a go at the coordinator for the Employment Consultation Forum, I suggested we have an agenda item and her first response was to ask for the name of the HMRC accounts office person who told me not to quote the four digit extension.

I now have a formal response which is, HMRC only requires the four digit extension if the employer is making a payment outside the normal payment parameters. Any payment within the correct payment timescale requires only the 13 digit accounts office reference whereupon it will be allocated to the current month. They have made no comment about Barclays only accepting a 17 digit reference, in compliance with HMRC requirements nor the constant mis-allocation of funds even when they are correctly referenced.

I still think this is something members should raise through WT meetings because the accounts office making errors and we are getting the blame for it and they seem to be changing their minds constantly regarding the format of the reference number.

Payrollpro

deanshepherd

I always pay my own PAYE on the last day of the month as I prefer not have the creditor sat in my monthly management figures.

Every month it gets allocated to the previous month and I get a snotty letter telling me I have not made my PAYE payment.