Deferral of the new PAYE Service from October 2008

HM Revenue & Customs have today, Wednesday 16 July 2008, announced their decision to defer the implementation of the new PAYE Service and Work Management System from October 2008.

The PAYE Service and the Work Management System are part of the planned introduction of a single, national computer system to replace the current PAYE (Pay As You Earn) computer system that has handled PAYE processing for the last 20 years. The PAYE rules are not changing, nor is the data we hold.

We recognise the huge importance of the changes we are making to PAYE processing and the customer service improvements they will bring. We will not implement the new PAYE system until we can be sure it will meet the demands that will be placed upon it.

A later implementation date will delay the introduction of the benefits that the new PAYE service will bring, but given the scale and importance of PAYE, we will only go ‘live’ when we are satisfied that the changes will deliver the expected benefits and not cause unnecessary disruption.

At this stage a new implementation date has not been set. The new date will be determined by a variety of factors including, of course, the best time in the annual PAYE cycle.

The decision to defer will have some implications on the PAYE changes for in-year forms being introduced between now and April 2009, although most changes will go ahead as planned.