What Payroll Information to Report to HMRC

Introduction

As an employer, you must report payroll information to HMRC in real time using Real Time Information (RTI). This means submitting details of your employees' pay, deductions, and benefits on or before each payday through a Full Payment Submission (FPS). This guide explains what information you need to report, when to submit it, and how the RTI system works.

What is Real Time Information (RTI)?

Real Time Information (RTI) is HMRC's system for collecting PAYE information from employers. Instead of reporting at the end of the year, you report each time you pay your employees. This helps HMRC keep accurate, up-to-date records of what your employees earn and what tax you've deducted.

You'll submit this information using payroll software. You'll also need to access HMRC's PAYE Online service to check what you owe, view tax codes and notices, and manage your PAYE account.

When to Submit Your Reports

You must send a Full Payment Submission (FPS) on or before your employees' payday each time you run payroll. This applies even if you're paying just one employee.

If you haven't paid any employees in a particular tax month, you must send an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) instead of an FPS to let HMRC know.

You should also send an EPS by the 19th of the following tax month if you need HMRC to apply any reductions to what you owe from your FPS. For example, you'd use an EPS to claim back statutory pay amounts like Statutory Sick Pay or Statutory Maternity Pay.

Employer Information to Report

Every FPS and EPS must include basic information about your business. You'll need to report:

Your PAYE references: This includes your HMRC office number (the first three digits of your employer PAYE reference) and your full employer PAYE reference (the letters and numbers after the slash). You'll find these on the letter HMRC sent when you registered as an employer, or on P6 or P9 coding notices.

Your Accounts Office reference: This is in the format '123PA00012345' and you receive it from HMRC after registering as an employer. If you pay electronically, it's available online.

The related tax year: You must specify which Income Tax year the report relates to (for example, 2025/26).

Depending on your business structure, you may also need to include:

• Your Self Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) if you're a sole trader, or the partnership UTR if you're a partnership
• Your Corporation Tax reference if you're a limited company (if you have more than one, use the reference for the company responsible for employment contracts)

Employee Information to Report

Every FPS must include detailed information about each employee you're paying. Your payroll software may use different names for these fields, but you need to report:

Essential personal details: National Insurance number (leave blank if you don't know it, but make sure you enter their address), title, surname, first forename, second forename (if applicable), date of birth, and current gender. Use your employee's full legal forenames rather than nicknames. You must show an employee's date of birth and gender on all RTI submissions.

Address details: Enter the full address if they're a new employee, you don't know their National Insurance number, or their address has changed. Make sure any postcode you enter is correct, as an incorrect postcode could result in HMRC correspondence being sent to the wrong address. If the employee lives outside the UK, Channel Islands, or Isle of Man, enter their country of residence.

Payroll ID: You can assign unique payroll IDs to your employees. If you re-employ someone within the same tax year, use a different payroll ID and restart their year-to-date information from £0.00. Also use different IDs if an employee has more than one job in the same PAYE scheme. Reusing a previous payroll ID will create duplicate records and report payroll incorrectly.

Special circumstances: Use the 'irregular payment pattern indicator' only if the employee isn't being paid regularly (for example, casual employees or those on long-term sick leave) or if you're not going to pay them for three months or more.

Pay and Deductions Information

For each employee, you must report their pay and deductions for both the current period and the year to date.

Information for the Current Pay Period

Taxable pay: The total pay that is taxable in this period, even if no tax is due. Include any benefits in kind that you've taxed through the payroll.

Tax deducted or refunded: The amount of tax deducted from or refunded to the employee in this payment.

Student and Postgraduate Loan repayments: Any student loan and postgraduate loan deductions made in this pay period. You must also report the Student Loan Plan type your employee is on. If you don't know which plan type, the employee should check with the Student Loans Company. Otherwise, default to plan type 1 until you receive a student loan start notice (SL1).

Pay after statutory deductions: The employee's net pay after deducting tax, National Insurance contributions, and Student Loan repayments. Don't include amounts you're reporting under 'Non-tax or National Insurance contribution payment'.

Other deductions: Any other deductions from net pay, such as child maintenance payments (but not tax, National Insurance contributions, or Student Loan repayments).

Special payments: Any payment made to the employee that isn't subject to PAYE tax or National Insurance contributions but has been sent with the salary payment for this period.

Strike indicator: Only mark 'Yes' if you reduced the employee's pay because they were on strike.

Year-to-Date Totals

You must also report cumulative totals for the tax year:

Taxable pay to date: The total taxable pay in this employment only, including any benefits taxed through payroll and the current payment.

Total tax to date: The total tax to date in this employment within the tax year, including the current payment. Don't include tax deducted from any previous employment.

Total Student Loan repayment recovered to date: The total student loan repayments recovered to date in this employment within the tax year, including the current payment.

Accessing PAYE Online

To submit your FPS and EPS, you'll use payroll software. However, you also need access to HMRC's PAYE Online service to check what you owe, pay your bill, see your payment history, access tax codes and notices about your employees, appeal penalties, and receive alerts about late reporting or payments.

When you register as an employer online, you're automatically enrolled for PAYE Online. HMRC will send you an activation code within 10 days by post, which you must use to activate your account within 28 days of the date on the letter. If you miss this deadline, you'll need to enrol again.

If you registered as an employer over the phone or by post, you'll need to enrol for PAYE Online separately before you can use the service.

Through PAYE Online, you can view tax code notices (P6 and P9), student loan notices (SL1 and SL2), National Insurance verification notices, and late reporting and late payment alerts. Some payroll software also provides access to this information, or you can use HMRC's PAYE Desktop Viewer application.

Sources

• Payroll information to report to HMRC
• PAYE Online for employers

This article provides general guidance based on current HMRC rules. For advice specific to your situation, speak to your accountant.