HMRC advise that they will shortly start alerting employers where their records show that they have not made their PAYE or CIS payments in full by their due date.

HMRC carries out payment checks after each monthly (or quarterly) payment deadline is passed. Shortly after that, HMRC will issue a late payment Generic Notification Service (GNS) message to employers and contractors if they have an underpayment of £100 or more for the month or quarter, as appropriate.

HMRC has revised the text of these messages from earlier versions following stakeholder feedback and this can be viewed at the link above. As explained in the What’s New message of 13 May 2014, these and other GNS messages are designed as a prompt to help employers keep their PAYE affairs up-to-date. HMRC also advise that employers won’t be charged an automatic late payment penalty in the tax year 2014–2015. However, employers should note that HMRC will issue late payment penalties for persistent and serious payment failures.

Detailed guidance about these and other GNS messages is available in the guide Using HMRC’s Online Services – PAYE for employers.