Employer Payment Summary

The EPS adjusts the employer's PAYE position

An Employer Payment Summary reports information that is not attached to one employee's payday record. Common uses include claiming permitted reductions in the PAYE amount due, reporting that nobody was paid in a tax month, marking a future period of inactivity or completing certain final-year information.

It works alongside the Full Payment Submission. The FPS creates employee-level pay and deduction figures; the EPS can change the employer-level amount HMRC expects. The HMRC payroll-information guide lists the current EPS fields and uses.

Send it for the right tax period

When claiming a reduction, use the totals supported by the payroll records and send the EPS by the current deadline for HMRC to apply it to that tax period. If no employees were paid, do not send an empty or invented FPS. The running-payroll timetable explains when a no-pay EPS is required and when the resulting balance becomes visible.

Check the PAYE scheme, tax month, year-to-date fields and any inactivity dates before submission. A valid acknowledgement only proves that HMRC received the message, not that the period or amount was correct.

Reconcile the acknowledgement to the liability

Keep the calculation behind every recovery or adjustment, the EPS acknowledgement and the HMRC balance for the same period. Compare the balance after HMRC has processed the submission, especially where an EPS was sent early or more than one report contributed to the month.

The HMRC RTI submission guide distinguishes no-payment, inactivity and adjustment uses. If HMRC's figure does not move as expected, check the scheme reference, submission date and period before sending another report. One reconciled trail is safer than repeated submissions whose combined effect nobody has recorded.