RTI: Disputed PAYE liabilities

HMRC have started to send letters to employers who are disputing a PAYE liability.

The letter can be viewed below:

Related documents

HMRC claim that there have been "relatively few" instances of this and that they are reviewing the root causes thoroughly to improve their systems wherever possible. 

There are a number of different factors for disputed charges;the main cause is duplicate employments. 

HMRC state that:

"The creation of duplicate employments is not a new issue. However, filing PAYE information in real time means that there is an increased chance of an error occurring which can then create a duplicate record.

To help prevent this we have:

  • Improved our guidance, especially Information you must get right when running your payroll;
  • Improved our IT to prevent the most frequent errors from generating a duplicate employment on our systems;
  • Put in place processes to correct as soon as possible for those that do get through."

If employers cannot immediately reconcile what they think they owe HMRC with what HMRC says is due, they should work through our Reconciling PAYE charges helpsheet. 

This sets out the steps employers can take to eliminate some of the most common errors and resolve the issue without having to contact HMRC. The helpsheet also explains what they should do if, after all the checks, they still cannot reconcile the charge."