From time to time, HMRC issues a notification that you'll need to action. They usually relate to a specific employee but can sometimes be a company-wide notice. The following sections explain the different notification types.
Tip: You can enable PayFit to automatically apply your HMRC notifications. For further information, please refer to your Help Centre article.
P9, P9X, P6 and P6(B) notices
The following notifications impact the employee's tax code. You need to action these notifications in the next possible pay run.
A P9 notification shows the tax code to use for a specific employee and is actioned at the start of the tax year.
A P9X is a country-wide tax code change to apply at the start of the tax year, to all of your employees with particular tax codes. For example, an uplift by 7 points.
For further information about tax code changes at the start of the tax year, please refer to this Help Centre article.
A P6 is a tax code change for a specific employee. For further information about manually adjusting tax codes, please refer to our Help Centre article.
A P6(b) is a tax code change for a specific employee, but also includes taxable pay, and tax paid from previous employment. This is similar to how you'd action a P45.
If this is your employee's first payroll, and you're not sure which tax code to use, please refer to this Help Centre article.
SL1 and SL2 notices
These notice types relate to student loan repayment plans. There are currently four student loan repayment plans:
Plan 1
Plan 2
Plan 4
Postgraduate loan
These repayment plans are processed through the payroll. If a repayment plan applies to an employee, you'll receive one of the following two notifications:
An SL1 notice tells you to start a student loan deduction. It includes the start date and the plan type.
An SL2 tells you to end a student loan deduction. It includes the end date, and the plan type.
You must action this in the next possible pay run from the date on the notice.
For more information about how to change an employee's student loan manually, please refer to our Help Centre article.
Employer notices
The most common type of employer notice is a change in the student loan plan type. This means you have a student loan plan in place for an employee, but you need to change the plan type.
RTI notices
The most common RTI notice from HMRC relates to an employee's National Insurance (NI) number.
This may be due to an input error or a new employee providing you with incorrect information. It could also be because your employee didn't have an NI number when they first joined your company.
It's important that an employee's NI number is correct, as it's used by HMRC to assign NI contributions, which impact the employee's eligibility for the state pension.
For further information about how to change an employee's national insurance number, please refer to our Help Centre article.
Generic notices
Generic notices can be issued for many reasons, such as:
HMRC recognises that you made a late payment, or your submission was sent late.
A reminder to submit your P11Ds and/or P11D(b) if you have company benefits.
A reminder to pay your HMRC liability if it was late in an earlier month.
These notices are not employee specific and sometimes require no action.