Tagged “payroll software”

5 articles, newest first.

• Amending a CIS return: the spec says don't, the schema can't, and HMRC decides by letter

  24 September 2026 ·18 min read

  HMRC's software spec says CIS return corrections must not be sent online. Everyone sends them anyway, the schema can't say "replace", and a letter with a 14-day deadline decides the rest.

  CISconstruction industry schemeCIS300HMRC

• The payrolling benefits spec is out. How my predictions did

  24 September 2026 ·5 min read

  In August I predicted what HMRC's 2027/28 payrolling spec would look like. It landed on 16 September 2026. Ten predictions scored, plus the one thing I said that was wrong.

  benefits in kindpayrollingRTIFPS

• The pension law that passed in 2023 and still isn't switched on

  13 September 2026 ·8 min read

  The 2023 Act lowers auto-enrolment to 18 and takes contributions from the first pound. Three years on, not one regulation has been made. What it would do, and why it's stuck.

  auto-enrolmentpensionsqualifying earningslegislation

• The BACS hash: HMRC's payment check that sounded good and caught nobody

  23 August 2026 ·13 min read

  For eleven years payroll software had to send HMRC a SHA-256 hash of every Bacs payment so they could check the money matched. It couldn't tell who was paid, and one email retired it mid-year.

  RTIFPSBACSSHA-256

• Payrolling benefits from April 2027: predicting the spec HMRC hasn't published yet

  14 August 2026 ·13 min read

  HMRC's 2027/28 payrolling-of-benefits spec isn't out until autumn 2026, but its shape is predictable. What the FPS will carry, how Class 1A goes real-time, and where software will hurt.

  benefits in kindpayrollingRTIFPS