As part of the HMRC April 2026 Employers Bulletin, the HMRC are again blaming employer for problems with the HMRC RTI system.
Employers create duplicate employments!
They state that: Employers continue to create duplicate employments when a payroll ID is changed but the payroll ID change indicator is not used. This typically occurs when the indicator is not ticked or when the old payroll ID is not provided.
When this happens, HMRC systems treat the new payroll ID as a new employment, which leads to:
- incorrect year‑to‑date information
- repeated contact from employers about the same discrepancies
- additional manual work to correct records
Starters who are not starters
They go on to state that: Errors also occur when employers submit a start date or a starter declaration instead of using the payroll ID change indicator. This causes HMRC systems to treat the update as a new job, which creates a second employment record for the same employee. To avoid these issues employers should:
- tick the payroll ID change indicator
- provide the old payroll ID
- provide the new payroll ID
HMRC reconciliation failures also occur where Full Payment Submission fields are completed incorrectly. A genuine new employment must include a start date, as missing start dates can cause HMRC systems to merge separate employments. Employers should:
- enter a start date for all new employees
- leave the start date field blank for continuing employments
The TUPE conundrum
Duplicates often happens when payroll software or services change. Also there is confusion on the application of TUPE transfers.
If the employee is continuing on the same PAYE scheme they are not a leaver or a new starter.
If the employee is continuing but on a different PAYE scheme, then they are a P45 leaver and a P45 new starter, don’t copy the values over.
Incorrect tax values!
Why these cause issues is not clear, however, HMRC indicate that incorrect completion of taxable pay fields is another cause of errors, especially when taxable pay in the period is submitted as nil while taxable pay to date is completed. This can result in merged or incorrect employment records. Employers must:
- enter the correct taxable pay for each payment period
- make sure year‑to‑date totals follow logically from the period figure
- avoid submitting nil pay where a payment has been made
It’s not clear what point HMRC are stating or whether the point has any justification. Corrective submissions may have zero this time values with corrected year to dates. That what would generally be expected as this time adjustment values would not relate to the BACS payment.
Payroll IDs
Additional problems occur when payroll IDs are reused for different employees, because this attaches submission data to the wrong customer record. This results in:
- split RTI data
- employment details appearing on the wrong record
- disputed charges and avoidable correction work
To prevent these issues employers should:
- use a unique payroll ID for each employee
- avoid reusing payroll IDs from former employees
- use the payroll ID change indicator where payroll systems generate new payroll IDs automatically
Opinion
This employer bulletin article highlights continuing duplication problems in the design of RTI systems. Whilst HMRC appear to be trying to educate employers on the complex process which makes limited logical sense to those operating the payroll, what they don’t do is make changes to the RTI solution to stop duplicates and misbalances.
Equally, the point the error no matter how caused is identified is when duplicates, underpayments and misbalances have already happened.
So once you have already fallen off the cliff, the ambulance come along and give you a leaflet on how to not fall off cliffs! Then don’t provide any treatment or take you to the hospital.
The RTI process requires review and improvement. What we need is better process to fix and repair RTI errors.
Where employers find duplicates and misaligned values on their employer online PAYE account, then raise a dispute charge resolution case online.
PAYadvice.UK 16/4/2026