What is a Full Payment Submission?
A Full Payment Submission (FPS) is the Real Time Information (RTI) report an employer sends HMRC each time they pay employees. It replaced the end-of-year P35 return when RTI began in April 2013.
The FPS tells HMRC, for each employee you paid:
- What they were paid this period and so far this tax year
- The Income Tax and National Insurance deducted
- Student and postgraduate loan deductions
- Statutory payments such as maternity and paternity pay
- Whether they started or left
Include everyone you paid in the period, even those paid below the lower earnings limit. HMRC uses the FPS to keep each employee's tax record up to date and to work out what the employer owes for the month.
When Must You Submit an FPS?
Send the FPS on or before your employees' payday, even if you pay HMRC quarterly instead of monthly. Enter the usual payday on it, even when you pay early or late.
A few situations allow a later FPS. These are the main ones on GOV.UK:
| Situation | When to report | Late reporting reason |
|---|---|---|
| Payday falls on a non-banking day | The next banking day, with the regular payment date | G |
| An ad hoc payment outside the regular payroll | In the next regular FPS, or an additional FPS | GOV.UK names no letter for this case |
| Pay based on the work done on the day, so it cannot be calculated in advance | Within 7 days of payment | F |
| A new employee with no P45 who is paid under £96 a week, or has worked less than a week | Within 7 days of payment | F |
| An expense or benefit with National Insurance but no Income Tax | Within 14 days of the end of the tax month | D |
An FPS sent after payday should carry a late reporting reason, one letter from A to H:
- A: a payment to an expat by a third party or an overseas employer
- B: employment-related securities, such as shares given at less than market value
- C: any other non-cash payment
- D: an expense or benefit with National Insurance but no tax through payroll
- E: a temporary HMRC relaxation for micro employers. GOV.UK no longer lists it and the 2027-28 schema drops it, so do not use it
- F: pay based on work done on the day, or a new employee with no P45 paid under £96 a week or for less than a week
- G: a reasonable excuse, including payday on a non-banking day, an employer PAYE reference not yet received, and foreign tax paid on the employee's behalf
- H: a correction to an earlier FPS
Without a reason, or with one HMRC disagrees with, HMRC may send a penalty warning, and a penalty.
What Information Goes in an FPS?
Employer information
- PAYE reference: the employer PAYE reference, such as 123/AB456
- Accounts Office reference: the 13-character reference used to pay HMRC
- Tax year: the year the payment belongs to, which must match the schema the FPS is built under
Per-employee data
- Name, date of birth, gender and address
- National Insurance number, if they have one
- Payroll ID (works number)
- Tax code, and whether it is cumulative or week 1/month 1
- NI category letter: A, B, C, H, J, M, V, X or Z for most employees, with their own letters for freeport and investment zone sites (see NI rates and thresholds 2026/27)
- Payment date, pay frequency and tax week or month
- Pay and tax deducted, this period and year to date
- Earnings in each NI band and the employee and employer NI
- Student and postgraduate loan deductions
- Employee pension contributions
- Statutory payments year to date (SMP, SPP, SAP, ShPP, SPBP, SNCP)
- In Northern Ireland, bereavement pay claimed for a miscarriage or under the expected earnings or day one right goes in its own SPBP NIRE year to date, and not also in SPBP, with the miscarriage indicator and the employee's Northern Ireland workplace postcode
- Starter details or a leaving date, where they apply
Step-by-Step: Submitting an FPS
- Run payroll: calculate gross pay, tax and NI for each employee.
- Review the payslips: look for unusual tax codes, unexpected pay changes or the wrong NI letter before anything leaves your system.
- Approve and finalise the pay run: the finalised figures are the ones the FPS reports. In Payburo an approved run can still be reopened and recalculated; once issued it cannot.
- Submit the FPS: your payroll software builds the XML in HMRC's schema and sends it to the Government Gateway. HMRC returns a correlation ID, its handle on that submission.
- Check the response: HMRC first acknowledges receipt, which means only that the submission is queued. Wait until it is accepted before treating it as complete: a rejection for data errors can still follow the acknowledgement.
HMRC's Response Explained
| Response | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Acknowledged | HMRC has received and queued the submission, but has not yet checked its contents | Wait: your software polls HMRC for the outcome, usually within minutes |
| Accepted | HMRC processed the submission successfully | Nothing: the FPS is filed |
| Rejected | HMRC refused the submission and returned error codes, or the Gateway refused the message before HMRC read it | Fix the errors and resubmit (see below). With no error codes, check the connection settings first |
| No answer | The FPS may have reached HMRC, but the connection dropped before any reply | Do not resend straight away: check with HMRC first, or the same payments may be filed twice |
Common FPS Rejections and Fixes
A rejection comes in one of two forms. Either the Government Gateway refuses the message before HMRC reads it, or HMRC reads it and it breaks one of the business rules published with the FPS schema. Each rejection carries a number. These come up most often:
1046: Authentication failure
The Government Gateway user ID or password is wrong, or the account is not enrolled for PAYE for employers on this scheme. Check the credentials in your payroll software's HMRC settings and resubmit.
7822: PAYE reference does not match the header
The employer PAYE reference in the body of the FPS differs from the one in its message header. Both normally come from the same stored reference, so this points at how the software built the message rather than at the reference itself: raise it with your software provider before changing a reference that may be right.
7823: No National Insurance number and fewer than two address lines
An employee with no NI number needs at least two lines of address. If they do not have one yet, leave the NI number out and send their full name, date of birth, gender and address so that HMRC can trace them. Never use a temporary reference such as TN: it is not accepted under RTI.
7907: No date of birth
Every employee needs a date of birth on the FPS (the only exception is a payment to a non-individual, such as a company). Add it to their record and resubmit.
7881: New starter with no starter declaration
An employee with a start date needs a starter declaration (A, B or C from the starter checklist), unless they are an expat or seconded worker reported with HMRC's indicators for how long they will stay and work in the UK instead, or an occupational pensioner reported with the pension indicator and the annual amount of their pension.
7955: Reduced-rate NI letter on someone too young for it
The reduced-rate letters (B, and E, I and T) are only for married women and widows who elected for reduced-rate NI before 1977, so HMRC refuses them for anyone born after 5 April 1961. Check the NI letter.
7889: Wrong tax year
The tax year on the FPS does not match the schema year it was built under. This usually means the software built a payment for one tax year with another year's schema. Each tax year has its own schema, and the payment's tax year decides which applies.
Late FPS: Penalties and Appeals
HMRC can charge a penalty for each month an FPS is late. The amount depends on the number of employees in the PAYE scheme:
- 1 to 9 employees: £100
- 10 to 49 employees: £200
- 50 to 249 employees: £300
- 250 or more employees: £400
An employer with more than one PAYE scheme can be charged for each. HMRC does not charge a penalty when:
- it is the scheme's first failure in the tax year to report on time (this does not apply to annual schemes)
- every payment on the late FPS was within 3 days of the employees' payday, although HMRC may still contact an employer who regularly files after payday
- a new employer sent their first FPS within 30 days of first paying an employee
HMRC sends penalty notices every quarter. You can appeal online in HMRC's PAYE for employers service (choose "Appeal a penalty") or in writing, quoting the penalty's unique ID. The grounds HMRC lists include ill health, bereavement, fire or flood, IT difficulty, theft, and that the FPS was in fact filed on time. For an IT failure or a filing made on time, the submission's correlation ID and HMRC's response are your evidence.
FPS for New Starters and Leavers
Starters and leavers go on the regular FPS for the period. No separate submission is needed.
- New starter: tell HMRC on or before their first payday. Their first FPS carries their start date and a starter declaration (A, B or C), which replaced the old P46. It is needed whether or not they brought a P45, except in the cases listed under 7881 above.
- Leaver: put their leaving date on the FPS that includes their final pay, and give them a P45 showing the same figures. A leaver with no pay in their final period is still reported: their leaving date goes on an FPS anyway. If you later find the leaving date was wrong, correct your own records but do not report the amendment on your next FPS.