Tax Year End Process

Pre-Checks

1.1

Ensure that your FastTrack360 application has been upgraded to the latest version.

This step is mandatory and you need to check the release version that is shown in your login page and cross reference that to emails that have been sent by FastTrack informing you of the version you need to have applied to operate your tax year end process.

1.2

Go to Payroll > Maintenance > Statutory Parameters

a) Click Import New Financial Year Tax Data.  This will create a row in the screen for the new tax year.

b) Then click Download Latest Tax Updates against the new tax year row to apply the statutory parameter rates.

1.3

Ensure that you are in the final period of the tax year for your pay groups.

1.4

Review your payees and establish if they need to be terminated and issued with a P45.

1.5

Go to Payroll > HMRC Portal

Check for any P6 notifications to be applied for the current tax year before your tax year end close and update against payee records. 

If the P6 updates are not applied, the payee’s tax code would not get uplifted correctly when performing the mass tax code uplift procedure.

1.6

Process your final pay period as normal and perform your standard payroll tasks.

Ensure that during your final pay batches for the tax year, payees who have been terminated remain in the pay batch even if they are not paid so that they will appear on the FPS, notifying the HMRC that they have left your organisation.

2.

Pay Group Tax Year End Close

2.1

Go to Payroll > Maintenance > Pay Group select your required pay group.

a) It is necessary to create pay periods for the next 2 tax years.  If you do not already have your pay periods created for your next year or for the following tax year, click Rollover.

b) This will generate the next tax year pay periods or if they already exist, the following tax year pay periods.

c) Then click Save.  This will take you back to the pay group search screen.  Go back into the pay group.

d) Please review your normal pay dates and change them as required.

There are lots of dependencies in payroll that rely on future pay periods being present such as the calculation of SMP and postponement periods for pension auto enrolment. It is imperative that you generate at least 2 complete future tax years of pay periods.

2.2

Against the final period of the current tax year for your pay group

a) Click Close. The following message will be displayed:

b) Click Yes to proceed.  The system will:

• Check payee ages and assign the appropriate NI category based on their age.

• Update any live payee’s tax code from a week1/month1 basis to cumulative.

• Initialise the year to date values for the new tax year with 0.00.

Once Yes is selected to continue with the year end close, it will not be possible to go back and process any further pay periods for the previous tax year.

3.

Payee Tax Code Updates

3.1

Go to Payroll > Year End > Mass Tax Code Uplift

This is to apply the uplift to tax codes as defined by the HMRC on the P9X if there are any.

a)       Select the required pay groups to apply.

b)      Enter the Tax Year Start for the relevant tax year e.g. 2020 for tax year 2020/2021, 2021 for tax year 2021/2022

c)       Add the letter suffixes as defined on the P9X and the amount to uplift the tax codes by.

Click Update.  This will ask you to confirm if the uplift should occur.  If you confirm, the system will update all live payee’s tax codes who have the suffixes you entered by the amount entered.

Ensure that this step is completed before updating payee records with any P9s.

3.2

Go to Payroll > HMRC Portal

a)       Select your PAYE reference and go to the Inbox

b)      Check if there are any further incoming forms by clicking Receive.

c)       Filter the list for Form Type P9

d)      Select all the payees and click Update.

You can now process your first period of the tax year.

It is imperative that the Mass Tax Code uplift is performed before applying any P9s otherwise the tax codes on the P9s will be increased which would be incorrect.

4.

Employer Payment Submission

4.1

If you are using FastTrack360 to submit your employer payment submission (EPS), and it is period 12 of the tax year (6 March to 5 April) perform the following item. This indicates to the HMRC that you have finalised your tax year and to not expect any further FPS or EPS submissions. Your final EPS should be received successfully by the HMRC by 19th April.

Go to Payroll > Pay Process > EPS Generation

a) Select the required PAYE Reference and enter the tax year end year.

b) Click the Edit button against tax month 6 March to 5 Apr

c) Complete any other fields as needed.

d) Go to the Employer Payment Summary and check Final Submission for Tax Year

e) Click Generate. This will generate the data for the EPS and make it available in the portal for submission to the HMRC. Once you have clicked this button, no further changes can be made to the EPS.

If a mistake is made on the EPS and you have yet to submit to the HMRC, please contact our support desk to ask to remove the EPS so that it can be generated again.

4.2

Go to Payroll > HMRC Portal > Outbox

a) Find the EPS and submit the EPS to the HMRC. Wait for the polling service to connect with the HMRC to transfer the file.

b) When the HMRC has successfully received the EPS, a completed status will be returned.

5.

Generate P60s

5.1

When you are ready to produce your P60s please follow these steps.  P60s should be delivered to your payees by the 31st May.

Go to Payroll > Year End > P60 Generation

a)  Click Add +.  This will create a batch for the P60s

b)  Select your pay company and pay groups

c)  Enter the tax year end. For example if it is tax year 2019/2020, enter 2020

d)  Click Find Payee.  This will retrieve all live payees with the tax type of PAYE within the range of data entered.

e)  Select the payees required, either by individually selecting the payees or by the select all check box, depending on who you want the batch created for.

f)  Click Create +.  The following message will be displayed:

g) If you select Yes this will create the P60s for those payees in that pay batch.

h) Repeat these steps for the range of payees that require P60s.

i)  Once the batch is created, this will issue the P60 to the portal instantly in the statutory documents.  If you do not want your payees to have access to their P60 in the portal, you will need to remove the permission of View Statutory Documents from their profile.  However, this will mean that if you issue P45s to the portal, a payee would not be able to access it either as they are all held in the same place.

If a mistake is made on the P60, please contact our support desk as the P60 will need to be removed by FastTrack360.

Go to Payroll > Maintenance > Pay Company

Select your pay company and go to the Tax Office tab.

Review the configuration in the allowances section. 

You need to review

a)       If there are any changes to the Apprenticeship allowance value for this pay group.

b)      If you still qualify for Small Employer Relief as this is dependent on your organisation’s total employer and employee national insurance contributions for the previous tax year.  If it exceeds £45000, you are not entitled to the small employer relief and the checkbox should be checked off.

c)       As the qualification to receive the employment allowance has changed, please review if you are still entitled to receive it.  If your organisation’s total employer national insurance contribution exceeded £100,000 for the previous tax year, you are no longer entitled to receive the employment allowance and the Claim NIC Employment Allowance should be checked off.

If you are in receipt of a state aid, these should be applied.  Please refer to section 8.1.2 regarding the employment allowance changes of the What’s New Guide 11.44.

2.

Go to Rates & Rules > Maintenance > Pay Codes

Add the new statutory payment pay code of SPBP with the pay code type of SPBP.

This is for the new statutory payment of Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay. Please refer to the 11.44 What's New Guide for further information