PAYE Late Payment Notice - Help

[3fold media]

Hi,

I'm looking for a bit of help if possible. I'll try not to ramble too much so hopefully, someone will understand.

I received a PAYE late payment notice (here) this morning from my accountants that they had received from HMRC saying that I was late paying the September PAYE.

I normally pay salary on the 28th of each month and do the PAYE same day. There had been a hiccup in me receiving the end-of-month summary so I didn't get the PAYE paid until October 3rd (5 days later than normal).

On questioning my accountants why this was deemed late (as I thought that I had until the 22nd of the following month to pay PAYE) they informed me that

HMRC records reflect that part of the amount was paid on 3rd October, but the rest was not paid until the 28th October.

The payments you made on 28th October is being split between two months, you must have underpaid one month.

Please see attached files which show the current and last year's payment history, The amount of £601.53 (part of September PAYE payment) should have been paid by 22nd October, it looks like it was paid after that date, 28th October.

So you still need to pay by 22nd November the £601.53 and then you should be up to date.

I've included a link to the two files I was given - current year and previous year

I've looked at this for so long I can no longer understand it!!

I don't mind paying if I've not paid the correct amount, but I can't understand how paying on the October 3rd is classed as late when September 28th isn't?

My accountants haven't been any help in clarifying this for me (I'm not an accountant so I don't understand it), and they have given me my P30 in the hopes that it "gives me a better view" (it's just a page full of numbers!!) P30

Can someone, anyone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks in advance

 

[NicoJ]

I haven't clicked on the links but the accountants explanation suggests to me that there was no payment on 3rd October per HMRC records. The next payment you made (28th October) has been allocated to the September payroll.

 

[3fold media]

but HMRCs own documents show that a payment was received on October 3rd

 

[NicoJ]

---

OK, so there is a missing payment somewhere hence why these have been split the way they have. I'm surprised that you haven't had other reminders. Oct 22 is not fully paid according to HMRC (thats why your accountant is advising you to pay an extra £601.53 to bring you up to date).

 

[3fold media]

If you look at the current year and previous year payment pdf's it looks like this started in August/September 2021.

I had underpaid by £0.20 in August 2021, so had paid an additional £0.20 in September 2021. This has then caused all the payments since to be split.

Not sure why it has taken until now for it to be flagged up as late as surely every payment has been late?

I'm still not sure of the logic in it all?

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

HMRC do make it difficult to check payments by splitting amounts as they do. I've had a few I've checked for clients.

My advice is to do two lists - one listing all amounts due and the other listing all amounts paid and make sure they match.

Then looking at the list of payments you've made match them to all the payments HMRC have. I generally do this by having the amounts paid on one sheet and the amounts HMRC have as paid on another and highlight the entries with a highlighter when they match.

That will then enable you to find the missing payment if a payment has been missed.

 

[3fold media]

I've done that and as far as I can tell there is no missed payment. The amount that has been owing is the amount I've paid each time.

If I pay the £601.53 that my accountant suggests (but I don't think is correct) will HMRC tell me if I've paid too much?

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

I really wouldn't pay £600 if you dont believe you've underpaid.

Go back to your accountants and show them what you've done and ask them for help.

HMRC do make mistakes and payments do get incorrectly allocated if payment references are incorrect.

But to answer your question - yes HMRC will generally let you know if their is an overpayment of PAYE/NIC.

 

[3fold media]

After looking through everything multiple times I've finally found the issue.

I had missed an entire payment in May 2021, don't know why this has only just been picked up by HMRC 18 months later?

It actually turns out I did make a payment, it just was to the HMRC VAT account!! ?‍?‍?‍
PAYE now paid, and just need to sort out the VAT overpayment (if possible)

Thanks for the help