Filing Missing Payroll Submissions After Tax
Year-End (Post-19th April)

Under HMRC’s Real Time Information (RTI) regulations, the standard tax year closes on 5th April, and all year-end payroll filings—including Month 12 submissions—should ideally be completed by 19th April.

If you discover an unfiled or missing pay period for a previous tax year after 19th April has passed, you must submit a Year-to-Date (YTD) Full Payment Submission (FPS) to bring HMRC’s records up to date.

Prerequisites Before Submitting

• Employee Profiles Configured:
  Ensure all staff who worked during the unfiled period are set up in your software with active payroll profiles for that tax year.
• Prior Submissions Present:
  To file a missing period post-19th April, at least one earlier payroll submission (FPS) must have been processed under that PAYE reference in the relevant tax year.
• Reason Code Prepared:
  HMRC requires a valid statutory reason code for filing an FPS past the original pay date (e.g., late reporting, software/micro-business exceptions).

Step-by-Step Filing Process

1. Access the Target Tax Year & Pay Period:

Open the relevant prior period.

Navigate to your payroll software's historic tax year view and select the earliest unfiled pay period (e.g., Month 11 before Month 12). Unfiled periods must be processed chronologically.

2. Prepare & Reconcile Payslips:

Audit gross pay, tax codes, and deductions.

Review earnings, tax codes, National Insurance categories, and pension contributions for each employee in that pay run. Edit individual payslips to ensure figures reflect actual gross-to-net payments made.

3. Assign Late Submission Reason Codes:

Required by HMRC for RTI late filing tracking.

Select the appropriate HMRC late submission code for each employee included in the pay run.

• Common Reasons: Operational delay or correction of prior period records.

4. Submit the YTD Full Payment Submission (FPS):

Transmits Year-to-Date figures to HMRC.

Execute the pay run and submit the FPS electronically using your Government Gateway credentials. The submission will transmit updated cumulative YTD totals for the closed tax year directly to HMRC.

5. Repeat for Subsequent Unfiled Months:

Check for multiple unfiled months.

If multiple months were missed, repeat the process in strict sequential order for each remaining pay period until the tax year is fully reconciled.