As the deadline approaches for the vast majority of staffing businesses to comply with Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC’s) new real time information (RTI) reporting requirements, a key HMRC official involved in the programme has reassured recruiters that complying is not burdensome.

Unless they are part of the RTI pilot or have more than 5,000 employees, all staffing companies will be legally required to begin submitting pay as you earn (PAYE) information to HMRC about those on their payroll in April, and all staffing companies will have to do so by October.

This has given rise to fears within the sector that the introduction of RTI will mean significant changes for the recruitment industry, including adding to the administrative burden.

However Maggie Anderson, head of HMRC’s RTI stakeholder engagement team, told recruiters at an event in London last week hosted by Professional Passport, a membership organisation working in the flexible workers market, that the RTI reporting “is not burdensome”, adding “once you get used to it, it becomes routine”.

But she advised that to ensure a smooth transition to RTI, staffing companies needed to be well prepared.

Anderson said that one of the key lessons from the pilot, which involves 320 employers and 3m employees, was the importance of making sure the payroll data was accurate. This was to prevent submission of the PAYE information to HMRC being rejected, Anderson explained. 

“Time taken to make sure that your payroll data is accurate is time well spent … get that right and everything else follows,” said Anderson.  

The mandatory data, which Anderson said needs to be accurate and complete is: full name, date of birth, gender and address, with National Insurance number only being included where known. 

Failure to comply with the rules could lead to penalties for staffing companies, umbrellas and payroll companies. However, Anderson said that with the enforcement regime not taking effect until April 2014, the emphasis was on helping employers get it right.