Available for the following HR Classic plans: Not provided
Available for the following plans: Not provided
Available for the following users: Admin
To process payroll compliantly in the UK, you need to enter and maintain accurate HMRC settings in your HR system. Keeping these details up to date ensures your payroll data syncs correctly and meets statutory requirements.
This article explains how to:
Enter and manage HMRC settings
This section covers how to enter, update, and save all required HMRC settings for your organisation, including PAYE references, tax details, and statutory reliefs.
- Log in to Employment Hero as an Admin.
- Go to Settings > HMRC Setup.
- Enter or update the following details as required:
- Employer PAYE reference (office + reference)
- Accounts Office Reference
- Corporation Tax UTR
- Select eligibility for small employer relief
- Select applicable Employment Allowance claim years
- Set Apprenticeship Levy obligation and enter allowance amount (decimal values allowed, no negative figures)
- Confirm whether amounts have been reported in other software
- Identify Freeport and Investment Zone site locations
- Enable RTI submissions and test mode
- Enter HMRC credentials (user ID, password)
- Confirm registered agent status and contact email
- Configure EPS submission schedule
- Enter refund account details (name, account number, sort code, Building Society reference)
- For the "Amount claimed in previous payroll period?" field, enter a value greater than 0. Negative figures are not allowed.
- For Employment Allowance, if you are selecting the 2026/27 tax year or later, the state aid sector selection will not appear. For earlier years, select the relevant state aid sector.
- Select Save to save your changes. If there are any errors (such as an invalid PAYE Reference format), review the inline feedback, correct the field as prompted, and save again. Your input will be preserved for correction.
- Once saved, changes made in HR are automatically synced to Payroll in real-time. If an API error occurs, review the inline error message and make the necessary corrections.
Further information
If you are looking for further ideas, try our community.
If there is an error syncing HMRC settings to Payroll, you will see a clear, actionable inline message next to the relevant field. Your input will be preserved so you can correct only the affected fields and resubmit. For general service outages, a visible banner will be displayed.
From the 2026/27 tax year onwards, HMRC no longer requires selection of a state aid sector for Employment Allowance. For earlier tax years, the option will still appear.