Registration for Inland Revenue Small Employers PAYE Online Filing

The registration process

Don't let Fagin rob you blind!!!

We recommend that you register immediately.
The registration is fairly straightforward providing you have the necessary information to hand....

Your business name
Your email address
Your choice of password
Employer’s PAYE Reference e.g. 123/A246
Your Accounts Office Reference, e.g. 123PX12345

The last two are on your PAYE payment book. In my own case I did not have the paying in booklet - our recommended accountant handles all the PAYE and I post the booklet to them when it arrives. I asked them to provide me with this information but in the meantime I dug out the P35 from last year - those numbers did not work! They were essentially the same as the correct numbers and looked exactly the same format but the accounts office reference had a couple of zeros inserted...
123PX12345 in my own case was more like 123PX0012345

OK time to register - off you go to https://secure.gateway.gov.uk/asp/about_registration.asp

Register as an organisation with a user id. Oh yeah - make sure you enter those codes in UPPERCASE because whoever coded this stuff for the IR was too damed stupid to convert it for you. Either that or they decided to make this process as difficult as possible so their mates in the accounting profession could rip you off more easily.

The first form asks for..

Your name in full
Your email address
Your choice of password (twice)

There are restrictions on the password format. Make shure you record it somewhere safe.

Next you have to choose which service you want to register for - tick the box PAYE online for Employers when I did this it was the fifth one down but they probably randomise the sequence to annoy everybody.

Next up you are requested to enter...

Tax Office Number
Employer Reference
Accounts Office Reference

N.B. It may not be obvious but the 3 digits preceding the slash in the Employer’s PAYE Reference sample is actually the tax office number and the stuff after it is the employer reference.

With any luck you will now be allocated your userid. BE SURE TO WRITE THIS DOWN - you will need it again and it is a long string of gibberish. At this point you can now login to your account. You can't actually do any online filing because you have to wait for your activation code to arrive through the post. When that arrives you can proceed with activation. Even before activation you can log in and look around though so lets take a look at logging in.

N.B. The IR have an annoying habit of moving their web pages around. We intend to maintain the links we include but you may get a duff one. If you do please contact us to let us know and we will correct it. If you are feeling particularly brave and get a duff link a good place to start on the IR webshite is "online filing" in the search - be prepared to waste a bit of time finding the correct information though.