Employer payment summary (EPS) submissions and P32 payments

You can submit an EPS to HMRC to report values that you cannot include on a Full Payment Submission (FPS). These values can affect the payments you make to HMRC on a monthly or quarterly basis.

You must also submit an EPS to notify HMRC when you claim your employment allowance. To do this, from company settings, select the eligible for employment allowance check box.

If you do not record your EPS, you may claim too much NI Employment allowance.

There are different scenarios where you submit the EPS. For example:

  • To adjust your payment to HMRC, to recover statutory payments and any related NI compensation.

  • To let HMRC know that there’s no payment due for this month, previous months or future months.

If you have any other queries, check out our common EPS questions article

Before you submit an EPS

Make sure you’ve processed and updated all pay periods in the relevant tax month.

Tax months run from the 6th of one month to the 5th of another, for example 6 April to 5 May.

You can only submit an EPS from the 20th of the current month until the 19th of the following month. For example, Month 1 submissions are between the 20th of April and the 19th of May.

The P32 Employer Payment Record report

You should view or print the P32 Employer Payment Record report at the end of each tax reporting period. The report shows a breakdown of your total liability due to HMRC for the period. You can use the values to help you see whether you need to submit an EPS.

Find out more about theP32 Employer Payment Record report

Record your P32 payment details and submit an EPS

Once you complete a reporting period, you should record your P32 payment details. If required, you can also submit an EPS.

Find out more about the P32 payment details report

If an EPS is due, it gets sent automatically. This happens when you go through the Record Payment/EPS wizard.

You would normally submit an EPS for the first tax reporting period. You can submit another EPS for each reporting period if you’re recovering statutory payments.

You may not need to submit an EPS if there are no statutory payments or CIS deductions to recover for the current period.

The payment is not automatically sent through Payroll, so you still need to pay HMRC the amount due. The deadline for payments depends on your payment method:

  • Bank transfer - the 22nd of the following month

  • Cheque - the 19th of the following month

Submit an EPS

To submit an EPS:

  1. Complete every pay run in the tax reporting period.

  2. Select Summary, then within the HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) Scheme area, check the current EPS status.

    If the Record Payment / EPS option doesn’t appear, either:

    • Not all pay runs are complete for the reporting period

    • All FPS submissions relating to these pay runs have not been successful

  1. Select Record Payment / EPS and enter the required details for your P32 payment:
Eligible for small employer’s relief

To claim small employers’ relief, choose Yes.

  • You qualify for this relief if you paid or were liable to pay, total gross Class 1 NICs, excluding Class 1A and Class 1B, of £45,000 or less in the qualifying year.

Find out more about small employers’ relief

Eligible for NI Employment Allowance

To claim the NI employment allowance, choose Yes.

  • Most employers can claim a £5,000 NI employment allowance. This is offset against your employer NI contributions.
  • If you qualify for the allowance, you must specify this when you record the P32 payment details, each tax reporting period.
Tax and NI due to HMRC The total amount of tax and NI currently owed to HMRC.
Record amount paid to HMRC

This is the total amount of tax and NI you’re actually paying to HMRC in this payment.

  • For a breakdown of the Amount Due value, refer to the P32 Employer Payment Record.
  • Do not include any statutory payment funding advanced to you.
Payment date The date of your payment to HMRC.
Ref/Cheque number The reference or cheque number associated with the payment, if applicable.
  1. Select Next, then confirm the balances are correct:
Amount of CIS Deductions suffered

Enter the total CIS deduction amount suffered up to and including the current pay run. If you aren't sure, for more information see the gov.uk page on the Construction Industry Scheme

  • The year to date amount up to the previous pay run also appears.
  • You can get this value from column E of Form CIS132.
  • The value reduces your tax liability. Payroll does update this automatically. You need to manually deduct the amount from your liability.
Total Recovery & Compensation for Statutory Payments If you pay statutory payments to employees, this shows the year to date value recovered from HMRC. The values cover up to and including the current pay run.

  • The balance up to the previous pay run also appears.
  • This is calculated automatically and includes recovery of any:

    * Statutory maternity pay (SMP)
    * Shared parental pay (ShPP)
    * Statutory adoption pay (SAP)
    * Ordinary statutory paternity pay (OSPP)
    * Additional statutory paternity pay (ASPP)
  1. Select Next.
  2. If No EPS Required shows, check the P32 payment value. If an EPS is due, check the amount and your Government Gateway login credentials.
  3. Select Submit.

You can check the submission status from the Summary screen. If a submission fails, to find out how to fix it, select Resolve Issue.

Find out more about failed submissions

You can now make your payment to HMRC as normal.

If you have Sage Accounting and Payroll, your totals go to your accounts at the end of each tax reporting period. This happens when you process your P32 payment. You can check what’s sent by looking at the salary journals.