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PAYE21165 | Employer records: maintain employer record: maintain employer agent details

From HM Revenue & Customs · PAYE Manual

It is important when you receive information either for the first time or advising you of a change in the person or body who is acting for an employer or contractor you understand

  • Exactly what that person will be responsible for doing on behalf of the employer or contractor

  • Whether all correspondence is to be sent to that person and not sent direct to the employer or contractor

  • Whether you will need to set the Agent indicator on the employer record

Notes:

1.If you receive a form 64-8 (Authorising Your Agent) you must treat this as priority and send the form to the Central Agent Authorisation Team (CAAT) who will enter the details onto EBS and other systems. Do not send any associated paperwork as this will delay processing. There are a few exceptions listed on the back of the form 64-8 which must be processed by the appropriate HMRC office, not by CAAT.
2.We must have a signed FBI 2 authorisation before we can send information to agents using PAYE online for Employers - Internet. We can however receive information, on behalf of the employer from any agent or representative.

Correspondence issued automatically on the Employer Business Service (EBS) is sent to the business address held on an employer record where that address is also the correspondence address. If an agent or payroll agent has been appointed and the employer or contractor requests all correspondence to be sent to them

  • That address will be stored as the correspondence address on the employer record

And

  • Correspondence will be sent instead to that address

Types of Agents

There are three types of people or bodies who may act for an employer or contractor in some capacity that you may be involved with. These are

  • An Agent

  • A Payroll agent

And

  • An accountant or similar financial institution

Agent

For the purposes of EBS an agent is a person who will be dealing with, and require copies of, all correspondence relating to

  • Operation of PAYE

  • Employer’s copies of coding notices

  • Payslips

  • Employer Pack

  • Employer annual returns

  • General employer correspondence

  • Regulation 80 Determinations

  • Late annual return penalties

  • Late P11D penalties

  • Other employer assessments

The details for the agent must be entered in the PAYROLL & CORRESPONDENCE ADDRESS DETAILS fields in Function ADDRESS SEARCH accessed from Function AMEND EMPLOYER SUMMARY.

If you have an agent who is acting for an employer or contractor you must have a signed authority from the employer giving you permission to send correspondence to that person.

Note: This authority (form 64-8 or equivalent) may have been sent to another office who deals with other aspects of that employer or contractor. For example the Technical Office.

You should ensure that you obtain a copy of this form and use Function AMEND EMPLOYER NOTES to record your actions and then file the copy of this form in the employer record pad.

You must also ensure that you set the Agent indicator on the employer record for this type of agent.

When agent indicator is present the Employer Pack check box will be unchecked. This is to reduce the number of unwanted employer packs being sent to agents.

Payroll Agent

A payroll agent may be employed by an employer to predominately handle the payroll for that employer. They will normally be responsible for handling all of the following

  • Operation of PAYE

  • Employer’s copies of coding notices

  • Payslips

  • Employer Pack

  • Employer annual returns

  • General employer correspondence

The details for the payroll agent must be entered in the PAYROLL & CORRESPONDENCE ADDRESS DETAILS fields in Function ADDRESS SEARCH accessed from AMEND EMPLOYER SUMMARY.

A payroll agent would not normally be involved in handling penalties or Regulation 80 determinations or other assessments on behalf of an employer.

You should not set the Agent indicator on the employer record unless the payroll agent is also responsible for dealing with all aspects of the employer’s taxation affairs.

Accountants

An accountant may be employed by an employer or contractor to deal with any of the following

  • Regulation 80 Determinations

  • Late annual return penalties

  • Late P11D penalties

  • Other employer assessments

You will normally find that this type of agent will not deal with the payroll but will deal with specific areas of an employer or contractor’s tax affairs. It is not possible to send any correspondence automatically to this type of agent. Any correspondence will need to be issued manually. Details of this person or body should be entered on the employer record using Function AMEND EMPLOYER NOTES. Where this person acts for the employer or contractor a form 64-8 authority should be obtained.

You must not set the Agent indicator for this type of agent.