What are the PAYE filing deadlines for employers?
Answered 17 March 2026
PAYE Filing Deadlines for Employers
What the law says
Under the Income Tax (PAYE) Regulations 2003, paragraph 67B, a Real Time Information (RTI) employer must deliver the required information to HMRC on or before making a relevant payment to an employee — i.e., the Full Payment Submission (FPS) must be filed on or before the date employees are paid.
The filing date for an RTI return is the date the payment was made, and an employer is liable to a penalty if they fail to file one or more RTI returns by that filing date.
HMRC Guidance / Practice
Full Payment Submission (FPS)
- An FPS must be submitted on or before an employee is paid and cannot be used after 19 April following the end of the tax year.
- A late filing failure is created when an employer fails to file their FPS on or before any payment date.
Employer Payment Summary (EPS)
- The EPS must be submitted by the 19th of the month following the end of the tax period in order to offset credits against that month's liability.
- The interest reckonable date for a late EPS submission is also the 19th of the month following the period to which it applies.
Employers Exempt from Online RTI Filing
- Employers exempt from online filing must submit a Full Quarterly Payment Summary (RT2) by the 19 July, 19 October, 19 January, and 19 April deadlines each year.
3-Day Grace Period
- A late filing failure will not be created where the employer sends in the RTI return within 3 days of the payment date.
- There is no change to the underlying filing deadlines; however, employers will not incur penalties for minor delays of up to three days.
New Employers
- New employers will not be charged a penalty for failing to file on time during the initial period of 30 days beginning with the date they were required to make their first RTI return.
Late Filing Penalties
- Penalties are charged per tax month, per PAYE scheme, based on the number of employees: £100 (1–9 employees), £200 (10–49), £300 (50–249), £400 (250+).
- Where a failure continues beyond 3 months, HMRC may charge a further penalty of 5% of the PAYE tax and Class 1 NICs that would have been shown on the missing return.
Citation sources
There are four types of RTI submission. Employer Alignment Submission (EAS) Full Payment Submission (FPS) Employer Payment Summary (EPS) Earlier Year Update (EYU) Commercial payroll packages and HMRC’s Basic PAYE Tools (BPT) allow employers to generate RTI submissions and send them to HMRC via PAYE Online and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). The EAS was used by large employers upon joining RTI up to the end of the 2013-14 tax year. The EAS was created through the employer’s payroll software an
Employers, with whom HMRC have agreed, are exempt from filing online RTI submissions will have to: complete an RT11 deduction working sheet for each employee submit a Full Quarterly Payment Summary RT2 by the 19 July, 19 October, 19 January and 19 April deadlines each year if applicable, submit an Employer Payment Summary (RT5) to report that no employees paid or to recover statutory payments in the quarter. The RT6 is a guide helping employers complete the above forms. The RT7 is a guide for em
An EPS is treated the same way as a payment therefore the late submission of an EPS will generate interest. The interest reckonable date for the late submission of an EPS is the 19th of the month following the period to which they are applied. CIS deductions and statutory payments reported on an EPS are treated as payments on account which discharge the employer’s liability to pay PAYE, NICs and CIS - they do not reduce the amount the employer was legally required to deduct and account for; in o
made in respect of them incurring costs of employment in respect of furloughed employees arising from the health, social and economic emergency in the United Kingdom resulting from coronavirus and coronavirus disease.” 40. The First Direction further contained a “Schedule” setting out the CJRS. The Schedule specified, at para. 3, the employers to which it applied. Under para. 3, an employer could make a claim for Support Payments under the CJRS if they have a Pay-As-You-Earn (“PAYE”) scheme regi
There is no change to the filing deadlines; however, employers will not incur penalties for minor delays of up to three days in filing their PAYE information.
For PAYE RTI returns, only the initial late filing penalty is automated. Where the failure to make a return on or before the filing date continues beyond 3 months, beginning with the day after the filing date, and the employer has not reported all of the outstanding payments on a later return, HMRC may charge the employer a further penalty. The penalty is 5% of the amount of PAYE tax and Class 1 National Insurance Contributions that would have been shown on the missing return (but not Student L
New employers will not be charged a penalty for failing to file a return on or before the filing date during the initial period. The initial period is 30 days beginning with the date they were required to make their first RTI return (paragraph 6C(3)), see CH62860. If the employer has elected under Regulation 98 of the PAYE regulations to be treated as a different employer in relation to different groups of employees, then for each PAYE scheme the employer is treated as a different employer when
Within certain parameters an employer can specify the tax month they want their EPS credit to be set against. If they don’t then, providing the EPS is submitted by the 19th of the month after the end of the tax period, RTI core and ETMP will offset the credit against the month just closed and the employer can reduce that month or quarter’s payment to HMRC. If the EPS is received after the 19th, they should reduce their next month’s or quarter’s payment. However, if the credit is more than the li
A late filing failure will be created when an employer Fails to file their return on or before any payment date in the Full Payment Submission (FPS) Late filing failures are created and sent to PAS daily. On the following day employers will be sent a late filing GNS message and HMRC users will be able to view the failures. A late filing failure will not be created where the employer sends in the RTI return within 3 days of the payment date. A late filing failure will not be created if the employ
An employer is liable to a penalty if, during a tax month, they fail to file one or more RTI returns by the filing date unless they (both): have a reasonable excuse for not doing so file the return without unreasonable delay after the excuse ended The filing date for an RTI return is the date the payment was made. Paragraph 6C(6) provides that an employer will only be liable to one penalty for each tax month for each PAYE scheme. These penalties are normally issued automatically on a quarterly b