Correcting errors in a previous tax year

1 minute read time.

Everyone makes mistakes from time to time.

If you notice a mistake in the previous tax year, don't worry, you can easily go back and fix it, then let HMRC know. 

How can I fix a mistake?

To fix a mistake, you first need to go back to the tax week or month when the mistake happened. You can then fix the mistake and reprocess your employees back up to date. As you reprocess them, you don't need to submit anything to HMRC, you do this at the end once you get back up to date.

How you go back to when the mistake happened depends on whether you use Sage 50 Payroll or Sage Instant Payroll.

Sage Instant Payroll

You can use the Restore option to go back to the tax week or month the mistake happened. You then need to reprocess your employees wages for each week or month until you get up to date. To help you with this, take a look at our reprocessing checklist.

Sage 50 Payroll

Does the mistake apply to one person or more then one person?

One person

You can use the Rollback option to take that person back to when the mistake happened. You then just need to reprocess that one person back up to date.

More than one person

You can use the Restore option to take everyone back to when the mistake happened and reprocess everyone back up to the current period.

 

Take a look at our Sage 50 Payroll reprocessing checklist.

How do I let HMRC know?

Normally, you submit a full payment submission (FPS) adjustment to let HMRC know of any changes to your liabilities. As the submission deadline of the 19 April 2018, for the 2017/2018 tax year has passed, you need to let them know buy submitting an earlier year update (EYU) instead.

To help you submit the EYU, use the following guides.