HMRC have published their RTI specifications for tax year 2026/27. These are intended for software developers who require time to implement the changes into payroll products. However, there are actions necessary because of these specifications and ICB wants to highlight the changes.
Most of the changes are to reflect the fact that the tax year will move from 2025/26 to 2026/27. Therefore, for example, the ‘payment date’ declared on the Full Payment Submission (FPS) must be in the range 06/04/2026 to 05/04/2027, likewise the ‘no payments from and to’ date fields on the Employer Payment Summary (EPS). These changes happen with each change of tax year and are standard changes.
However, there are several new fields for both the FPS and EPS and these are the ones that require detailing with some action notes:
The Full Payment Submission (FPS)
This is the submission to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) about payments and deductions made in the pay period. The following table indicates the new fields for 2026/27:
|
Data item
|
Field name
|
Description
|
|
192
|
Student Loan plan type
|
Field has been updated to allow the entry of Plan 5 from April 2026
|
|
223
|
Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay year to date in Northern Ireland (SPBPNIRE)
|
A new field to accommodate the employment law change that only applies to employees gainfully employed in Northern Ireland. Parental bereavement leave and pay will be a day 1 right in the cases of stillbirth and child death. This will not apply to employees who normally work in Great Britain
|
|
224
|
Access to Statutory Parental Bereavement pay (SPBP) in Northern Ireland due to miscarriage
|
A new field to accommodate the employment law change that only applies to employees gainfully employed in Northern Ireland. Parental bereavement leave and pay will be applicable to miscarriages (up to 24 weeks).
This will not apply to employees who normally work in Great Britain
|
|
225
|
Northern Ireland employee workplace postcode
|
If either of the above are claimed / paid to an employee, this field must be populated
|
The Employer Payment Summary (EPS)
This is the submission that must be made if there are any recoveries to be made from the amounts declared on the FPS. For example, it is used to reclaim Statutory Maternity, Adoption and Bereavement Pay and is used to make the annual claim for the Employment Allowance. The following table indicates the deleted and new fields for 2026/27:
|
Data item
|
Field name
|
Description
|
|
All Employment Allowance fields relating to State Aid
|
The Employment Allowance is not regarded as UK Government funding / State Aid. This applied from April 2025; however, the fields are only being removed from April 2026
|
|
221
|
Value of Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP) recovered year to date in Northern Ireland
|
A new field to accommodate the Statutory Bereavement Pay paid under elements 223 and 224 above. Whilst the payments are declared under different elements, the recovery is under one element code
|
|
222
|
Value of NIC compensation on Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay year to date in Northern Ireland
|
A new field to accommodate the Statutory Bereavement Pay NIC compensation payable on payments made under data items 223 and 224 above
|
For Bookkeepers
Although tax year 26/27 seems far away, it's important to note:
- A new Student Loan Plan 5 has been accommodated in the FPS;
- SPBP will be split between employees who ordinarily work in Great Britain and those that work in Northern Ireland. When paid to an employee who ordinarily works in Northern Ireland and reported via the FPS, the workplace postcode must be populated; and
- All redundant State Aid field have been removed for the Employment Allowance from the EPS
ICB suggests that where SPBP will be payable to employees who ordinarily work in Northern Ireland, members contact their software developers to look at how their product will accommodate this in 2026/27. Further, importantly, members will have to gather the workplace postcode (and ask developers where this will be populated in their software).
