HMRC plans Government Gateway downtime

HMRC has posted details of closures to its Government Gateway planned for Tuesday 19 November due to essential maintenance reports Harris & Co Accountants Northampton.

According to the information on the HMRC website, Government Gateway is expected to close from 21:00 on Tuesday 19 November to 00:59 on Wednesday 20 November. This means that employers using commercial software or HMRC"s Basic PAYE Tools will not be able to send their real-time PAYE submissions during this time.

HMRC are reminding employers that 19 November is the monthly cut off for sending an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) for tax month 6 Oct – 5 Nov. This means that any EPS submissions sent after 21:00 will be automatically allocated to the next tax month (6 Nov – 5 Dec). To ensure all EPS submissions are allocated to the correct month, employers should send their EPS submissions before 21:00 on Tuesday 19 November.

For those using the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS). HMRC recommend where possible that they wait for EMCS to become available and then submit messages on EMCS in the normal way rather than use fallback procedures. If they cannot wait for EMCS to become available they must follow the fallback procedures detailed in Public Notice 197 and on the EMCS website.