What to do when errors have been made during and after payroll processing? ICB points to some guidance on Gov.UK which may be of help.
The ‘Fix problems with running payroll’ guidance has four sections:
Your PAYE bill is not what you expected
This section details the monthly obligation to pay HMRC and advises that employers / agents should check their online account to see the monies that HMRC are expecting to be paid. Of course, what HMRC are expecting should equal the monies your payroll system indicates is due and the section continues with things that should be checked if the two do not balance.
You made a mistake in your FPS or EPS
This section outlines some of the reasons for a discrepancy, focusing on errors that the employer may have made in either the Full Payment Submission (FPS) or Employer Payment Summary (EPS). There is some useful advice if you have reported the wrong pay or deductions of reported the incorrect payment date in your FPS.
With regard correcting personal data, the guidance is clear on the situations where reporting this in subsequent submissions may result in HMRC’s systems creating a duplicate employment (which will double-up their expectations of monies due to them).
You paid HMRC the wrong amount
This section details what action you need to take, all depending on whether too much or too little has been paid to HMRC and how the error occurred.
Do remember that if too little has been paid, HMRC may impose a late payment penalty and interest.
You paid your employee the wrong amount or made incorrect deductions
This section details what to do in the above situations. Essentially, if you make the correction in a later pay period, this will all go through as normal on the FPS. It is the situations where an additional FPS is required that require attention and the need for this to contain:
- The same payment date as the original FPS;
- The same pay frequency as the original FPS; and
- The letter ‘H - Correction to earlier submission’ reported in the ‘Late reporting reason’ field
The section contains information about corrections to a previous tax year.
Whilst drawing your attention to the ‘Fix problems with running payroll’ guidance, it is also worthwhile pointing to the ‘Get help to correct an employer PAYE bill’ guidance released at the start of August 2025. This details a service to enable you to get help from HMRC if you think your employer PAYE bill is wrong and you have been unable to fix it using the above Gov.UK guidance. The ‘Before you start’ section details the information that HMRC will expect you to have at hand:
- The PAYE reference number;
- The Accounts Office reference number;
- The Self-Assessment or Corporation Tax Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR); and
- The number of employees the business has
Also, you will need the following year-to-date information as detailed in your payroll software, relevant to the tax year you are querying:
- Income Tax;
- Employer National Insurance contributions;
- Employee National Insurance contributions;
- Student loan deductions; and
- Class 1A National Insurance contributions
