If your business has a payroll then you may, like me, have received an RTI non-filing notice from HMRC. “Rubbish” is a polite version of my reaction. RTI should be the most straight-forward part of the payroll. The hard part is often calculating who is owed what if you have many non-salaried staff. So it would be fair to say that I was a bit miffed.

OK, so what is the consequence? Well until April, nothing. But, after April, possibly a fine from HMRC. So  I phoned HMRC. Their assumption was that I had not filed a return, hence the RTI non-filing notice. More worrying was that they could not tell me specifically why I had received the notice. My theory is that it was caused by correctly filing a return on Feb 6th for a Feb 7th payroll which is after the HMRC PAYE month-end of Feb 5th.

I can only hope that HMRC get their act together with the RTI system. A quick look on the web revealed a tidal wave of RTI non-filing notices this week.

Of course if you really haven’t kept on top of things then you need to take a deep breath and file your RTI returns. And get some help from a Chartered Management Accountant if you need to.

Helen Alexander

Millbrook Financial Management Ltd