COMPLIANCE
CIPP report flags issues in HMRC RTI data collection
Mathew Akrigg MCIPPdip, CIPP Policy and Research Officer, shares details of the recent report focussing on issues flagged by payrollers around real time information (RTI) and customer experiences with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
T he CIPP does many things and professionals, and, because of our Royal Charter, this means all payroll professionals. The policy team has recently released a report, “ Systemic issues in HMRC RTI data collection and customer experience seeking resolution ” (view it here: https:// ow.ly/7IFr50V60W1), based on community feedback while out at events and networking. Here, I’ll explore why we started researching in this area and what’s come out of releasing the report. wears many different hats, but at its core it’s here to represent payroll Identifying a wider issue It was around 18 months ago I was first approached by a member at an event. They had an issue where they had a charge on their pay as you earn account, meaning they owed HMRC some money. This isn’t unusual. Charges can be generated for a range of reasons and are usually rectified once the company in question has identified the error, understood where it’s happened and has either resubmitted data or made the payment. But they assured us no mistakes had been made in the payroll, and they were certain the correct funds had been paid.
At this point, we suggested they talk to the employer helpline, find out what the issue was and follow HMRC’s instructions. After all, HMRC will readily engage with us on policy decisions and matters of legislation but will rarely speak to us or get involved in a particular case raised by a single employer. For the most part, this is reasonable in all but the most egregious cases, as that’s what the helplines are for. However, we had another payroller come to us with a similar sounding story. Then another, then another. I’m sure by now there may even be some readers finding this tale familiar. A pattern emerged and I decided we needed to dive into this further and explore the scope of the problem. Through the comments made to us, calls through our Advisory Service and introductions made by contacts, we identified a handful of payroll teams who were prepared to discuss their issues with us. From this, we generated seven case studies which can be read in the full report. Many of the case studies covered the same sorts of issues and showed similar issues, namely:
l charges being raised by HMRC l payroll team data being confirmed with software providers l employer helplines being unable to resolve issues l cases transferred to the Charge Resolution Team l long wait times for resolution. The key thing to take from the long wait times is that they were often more than 18 months. In one case, there’d been a wait time of two years as of January this year and still no resolution has been found. While this is happening, employers and employees are left uncertain about their tax position and how much they owe HMRC. Some extremely lucky payroll teams were able to speak to someone on the employee helpline who could see the problem and resolve it. Although in one instance, they didn’t want to provide their name to receive positive feedback, for fear of getting into trouble for resolving the issue. This area formed the core of our recommendations. At the very least, we need additional transparency from HMRC on how it’s dealing with such queries and how long the issues are taking to resolve.
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | April 2025 | Issue 109 20
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