PAYE5011 | Background: real time information (RTI): new employers joining RTI from November 2012

From 6 November 2012, customers registering to be new employers could choose to join RTI immediately. This only applied to ‘P’ and ‘OCCP’ schemes. If, for instance, an employer wished to set up a PSC scheme in RTI then we were unable to, they were advised to wait and join RTI from April 2013.

New PAYE registrations from 6 April 2013 will be required to join RTI unless they have an acceptable claim for exemption from online filing.

There are only three reasons for being able to claim exemption from online filing, they are

• Practicing members of religious societies or orders whose beliefs are incompatible with the use of electronic methods of communication

• Care and support employers who meet the following conditions

• The care or support services must be provided to the employer or a member of their family

• The recipient of the services must have a physical or mental disability, or be elderly or infirm

• The employer cannot have received a tax free payment in respect of online filing in the last three years

• The employer must be filing their return themselves, not having someone else (such as a relative or accountant) file it on their behalf

• Employers who can show that they are unable to file online due to digital exclusion. Employers must be able to show that

• They live in an area with poor broadband connection, there is no one who can file on their behalf
  Or

• They are elderly and this means that filing online would prove problematic