Accountants vs HMRC

[adejones]

Hi all
I stopped being self employed 31st December 2025 and became Director of my company on 1st January. I have an accountant who process my payroll and deal with my submissions.
I have been trying to update my income with Child Maintenance since January but they keep rejecting my claims as they could not see any change in income on the HMRC system, only from April where it has my start date as 6th April and monthly submissions from that date, nothing prior.
After a few months of back and forth, HMRC told me they couldn't see any monthly FPS submissions. I spoke to my accountant in May and they "re-submitted" Month 10, 11 and 12 (for Jan-Mar) for HMRC to process in June.
After more calls, I was told by a guy on the personal tax line (HMRC) that as the accountant had re-submitted them in May, Month 10, 11 and 12 had been assigned to this tax year (2026/27) instead of what it should have been (2025/26), informed the accountant of this, they say there's nothing further they can do, called HMRC back and this time the lady I spoke to couldn't see the submissions, doesn't know how the guy found them, she checked several systems, looked for duplicate accounts, checked the self-employment system etc.. and couldn't see anything at all relating to Month 10, 11 and 12.

Are there any accountants on here who could perhaps shed some light as to what could have gone wrong, and how it could be resolved? Or anyone who knows the online tax portal well and could advise if there is a way I could resolve this without further to and fro between the accountant and HMRC?

Thanks.

 

[DontAsk]

Do you have access to your business and personal tax accounts? Have you looked therein?

 

[adejones]

Do you have access to your business and personal tax accounts? Have you looked therein?

Yes, in my personal tax account it says my start date is 6th April 2026, has my monthly income figures from April onwards, and for 2025/26 it says there is no income tax history for that year.

In my business tax account under PAYE i'm not entirely sure what i'm looking at/for as my accountant handles this bit for me, but it does have my employers NIC charges for 2025/26 with payment records, but the employer line also told me they couldn't see the submissions and the accountant needed to re-send, which they did.

 

[DWS]

Yes, in my personal tax account it says my start date is 6th April 2026, has my monthly income figures from April onwards, and for 2025/26 it says there is no income tax history for that year.

In my business tax account under PAYE i'm not entirely sure what i'm looking at/for as my accountant handles this bit for me, but it does have my employers NIC charges for 2025/26 with payment records, but the employer line also told me they couldn't see the submissions and the accountant needed to re-send, which they did.

Can you not ask your Accountant to phone HMRC?
That is what I do for my clients if there is an issue with something I have submitted.
Your Accountant will have all the information and submission dates from the payroll software to go through with HMRC.

 

[Newchodge]

It looks as if your accountant did no payroll submissions to HMRC until April 2026, at which point they declared you as a starter on 6 April and submitted RTI from that date.

That means that, as far as HMRC were concerned you were not a starter until 6 April so you cannot have had payroll until that date.

I suggest you speak to your accountant, ask if my assumption is correct and, if so, instruct them to put it right NOW. Ask how they failed in this way and look for a competent accountant.

 

[adejones]

Thanks for the replies.

Can you not ask your Accountant to phone HMRC?

I have done now but not heard back from them yet, they seemed reluctant in their previous replies.

It looks as if your accountant did no payroll submissions to HMRC until April 2026, at which point they declared you as a starter on 6 April and submitted RTI from that date.

This is what I also suspected, when I first contacted to say HMRC have no history they said they have 're-submitted' them but I suspected that was the first submission - and in the copies of the FPS they have sent me the submission date is the date I emailed them.

 

[Newchodge]

Thanks for the replies.


I have done now but not heard back from them yet, they seemed reluctant in their previous replies.



This is what I also suspected, when I first contacted to say HMRC have no history they said they have 're-submitted' them but I suspected that was the first submission - and in the copies of the FPS they have sent me the submission date is the date I emailed them.

It is not the FPS financial details that matter. What matters is the date declared to HMRC (on the FPS) that you commenced employment.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

I have done now but not heard back from them yet, they seemed reluctant in their previous replies.

Seems like a sign to change accountants - there are a few good ones on here!

 

[adejones]

It is not the FPS financial details that matter. What matters is the date declared to HMRC (on the FPS) that you commenced employment.

Looking at the M10 one (the first one) it says start date: 2026-01-01 and under that it says starting declaration: This is my first job since 6th April - but of course this may not have been submitted until 6th May 26, so would HMRC have taken 6th April as 2026, not 2025?

 

[Newchodge]

Looking at the M10 one (the first one) it says start date: 2026-01-01 and under that it says starting declaration: This is my first job since 6th April - but of course this may not have been submitted until 6th May 26, so would HMRC have taken 6th April as 2026, not 2025?

"M10 one", do you mean the FPS submitted as applying to M10 2026 (January 2026)? HMRC does all sorts of weird things, but the starting declaration is only used to assess your tax code for that tax year. Is your accountant a member of one of the accounting bodies?

 

[Newchodge]

I suggest you speak to your accountant, ask if my assumption is correct and, if so, instruct them to put it right NOW. Ask how they failed in this way and look for a competent accountant.

Have you done this?

 

[adejones]

That is correct M10 = January 2026 which is the first month the company is trading and the first month I have been an employee/Director.

They are going to call HMRC for me today so I await to hear the outcome of that.

 

[DWS]

That is correct M10 = January 2026 which is the first month the company is trading and the first month I have been an employee/Director.

They are going to call HMRC for me today so I await to hear the outcome of that.

I know this may sound silly but have you checked to make sure that your Accountants are submitting the RTI’s using the correct Employer Reference and PAYE Reference for the Company?

 

[adejones]

I know this may sound silly but have you checked to make sure that your Accountants are submitting the RTI’s using the correct Employer Reference and PAYE Reference for the Company?

Yes, all seems fine, and HMRC have received them successfully each month from April. It just seems to me that because they submitted M10, 11 and 12 for 2025/26 after April they have got lost in the ether.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hi all
I stopped being self employed 31st December 2025 and became Director of my company on 1st January. I have an accountant who process my payroll and deal with my submissions.
I have been trying to update my income with Child Maintenance since January but they keep rejecting my claims as they could not see any change in income on the HMRC system, only from April where it has my start date as 6th April and monthly submissions from that date, nothing prior.
After a few months of back and forth, HMRC told me they couldn't see any monthly FPS submissions. I spoke to my accountant in May and they "re-submitted" Month 10, 11 and 12 (for Jan-Mar) for HMRC to process in June.
After more calls, I was told by a guy on the personal tax line (HMRC) that as the accountant had re-submitted them in May, Month 10, 11 and 12 had been assigned to this tax year (2026/27) instead of what it should have been (2025/26), informed the accountant of this, they say there's nothing further they can do, called HMRC back and this time the lady I spoke to couldn't see the submissions, doesn't know how the guy found them, she checked several systems, looked for duplicate accounts, checked the self-employment system etc.. and couldn't see anything at all relating to Month 10, 11 and 12.

Are there any accountants on here who could perhaps shed some light as to what could have gone wrong, and how it could be resolved? Or anyone who knows the online tax portal well and could advise if there is a way I could resolve this without further to and fro between the accountant and HMRC?

Thanks.

My advice - this is for your accountant to sort out.

If the FPS submissions haven't been recorded correctly, or have been allocated to the wrong tax year, that's really something they need to take up with HMRC on your behalf.

Unfortunately, HMRC can be notorious for passing the buck, and giving different answers each time, but if you keep acting as the middleman between them and your accountant, you can end up going round in circles.

I'd go back to your accountant, explain exactly what HMRC have said, and ask them to sort it out.

 

[adejones]

Thanks everyone, my accountant said this morning that they'd call HMRC for me and although I haven't yet had any further response, I have logged back in to my personal tax account and can see 3 months of income for 2025/26 now showing, so looks like they have called and resolved the issue, just haven't told me yet.