Was HMRC’s RTI pilot scheme actually a success?

HMRC recently released a review of their Real Time Information pilot scheme, classing it as a great success. Recent feedback from payroll specialists has been less positive however, with many criticising HMRC and the RTI pilot scheme in general.

In HMRC’s report (which you can read in full here) stated: “Overall, the pilot boosted confidence that the process worked well and provided evidence that it would reduce administration burdens for employers.”

“The success of the national roll out of reporting PAYE in real time so far is based on the solid foundations laid by the success of expanding the RTI pilot into live running.”

This report has come under fire from many payroll professionals for a number of reasons. One of these is the fact that certain issues highlighted by the National Audit Office (NAO) were not mentioned in the review. These included the lack of a solid system specification, management reporting requirements and accounting accreditation.

AccountingWEB recently posted an article listing these issues in more detail. (You can read the full article here)

A number of IRIS payroll software users took part in the RTI pilot and the feedback we got from them was very positive. Diane Jones, practice manager at Yorkshire Street Surgery and IRIS GP payroll user had the following to say about it:

“The pilot has been very easy so far! After the first reconciliation, which is just like normal year end, everything just falls into place. After the first time it's straight forward every month. It's just an extra click at the end of your usual routine, and you get an email confirming it has all been successfully submitted. You think it is going to be a lot of extra work but in reality it isn't. I'd definitely recommend attending training beforehand though, as we went on an IRIS RTI webinar and it was invaluable. The follow up advice has been a great assistance as we always know we have something to refer back to if we have any questions.”

Did you take part in the RTI pilot? If so, please let us know how you found it!

If you are one of the 300,000 PAYE schemes still failing to comply with RTI, why not look at our range of RTI ready payroll software?

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