What

WHAT IS HMRC VERIFY?

HMRC Verify is a DiligenceHub feature that lets you prove, month by month, that the PAYE, National Insurance and VAT you owe HMRC has actually been paid – not just deducted on payslips, but received by HMRC.

It works through a small browser extension. When you log into your own HMRC Business Tax Account and open your PAYE statements or VAT pages, the extension reads the figures HMRC shows you and sends them to DiligenceHub. DiligenceHub compares what HMRC says you were charged with what HMRC says you paid, and records a simple result for each month: Verified or Unverified.

The result appears as a status on your DiligenceHub profile, visible to you and – depending on the settings described below – to the recruiters and other organisations you have authorised a connection to.

WHY DOES THIS EXIST?

Recruiters, end clients and their banks are under growing pressure to show that the umbrella companies in their supply chains are paying their tax. HMRC’s own guidance on payslip fraud makes the point plainly: a correct payslip proves that tax was deducted, not that it was paid over.

Until now the only ways to demonstrate this were screenshots (easy to select or alter) or third-party audits that ask for your HMRC login details. Neither is satisfactory. HMRC does not offer an interface that would let DiligenceHub check for you.

HMRC Verify takes a different approach:

  • You stay in control. You log into HMRC yourself, in your own browser. DiligenceHub never sees your Government Gateway user ID or password and cannot log in as you.
  • The evidence is taken at source. The figures come straight from the pages HMRC shows you, at the moment you view them, and are stamped with the time and a fingerprint of the page.
  • The result is simple. A recruiter does not need to read your accounts; they see Verified or Unverified.
  • You decide how much detail others can see. The pass/fail status is one thing; the actual pounds and pence are another, and those are only shared if you choose to allow it – we recommend that you do because many of your competitors will.

 

For FCSA members it also feeds directly into the FCSA assessment record, so an assessor can see twelve months of payment compliance without asking you for anything.

HOW IS THE RESULT WORKED OUT?

PAYE
Each tax month is Verified if the amount HMRC shows as still due is £50 or less. The £50 tolerance exists so that timing differences and rounding never count against you. If the amount due is more than £50 the month is Unverified.

VAT
Each VAT return period is Verified unless HMRC shows an outstanding charge of more than £50 that is past its due date. A charge that is not yet due is not a failure. Periods where HMRC repaid you are Verified.

Payment plans
If HMRC shows that you have a payment plan (Time to Pay) in place, that is flagged for FCSA to review rather than automatically counted for or against you.

FCSA review

FCSA staff can see every result and can override an automated result in either direction, always with a written reason that is kept on record. If you believe a result is wrong, contact FCSA.

WHEN DO I NEED TO DO THIS?

Once a month. HMRC Verify looks for a capture covering the previous calendar month.

  • From the 22nd of each month, if nothing has been captured for the previous month, your account owner receives a reminder email.
  • Reminders continue daily until the 28th.
  • After the 28th, a missing PAYE capture is recorded as a non-submission for that month, and both you and FCSA are notified.
  • For VAT, a missed month shows as “VAT check overdue” until you next visit your VAT account.

In practice: open your HMRC Business Tax Account once a month, look at your PAYE annual statement and your VAT payment history, and you are done. Most people do this when they make their monthly PAYE payment.

HOW DO I SET IT UP?

Step 1 – Install the extension

  • Chrome and Edge: install “DiligenceHub HMRC Verify” from the Chrome Web Store (Edge users first switch on “Allow extensions from other stores” in Edge’s extensions page).
  • Safari on a Mac: install from the Mac App Store [coming soon], or from the installer FCSA provides during the pilot, then enable it in Safari’s Extensions settings.

 

Separate guides for each browser are available from FCSA and your internal technical support team can help you.

Step 2 – Generate a token

Log into your DiligenceHub portal and open the hmrc verify page in your account area. Click “access tokens“. Give it a label such as “Finance laptop” and copy the token – it is shown once only so be careful to copy it to somewhere safe. The page also shows the DiligenceHub web address you will need next.

TIP: Use one token per computer. If a laptop is lost or a member of staff leaves, you can revoke just that token from the same page and the others keep working.

Step 3 – Connect the extension

Click the DiligenceHub icon in your browser toolbar, open Settings, enter the DiligenceHub web address and paste the token, then Save. The popup will show “EPAYE: Pending” and “VAT: Pending”.

Step 4 – Capture

Log into your HMRC Business Tax Account. Open PAYE for employers, then Annual statements. Then open VAT, then Payment history (and What you owe). The extension captures automatically as each page loads; the popup changes to “Captured — Pass” or “Captured — Fail” and your DiligenceHub profile updates within seconds.

WHAT IF I HAVE MORE THAN ONE PAYE SCHEME?

Each PAYE scheme has its own reference and, at HMRC, its own Government Gateway login. Log into each in turn and open its Annual statements page. HMRC Verify records each scheme separately and shows your company’s overall status as the worst of them – one scheme behind means the company is Unverified until it is put right. The number of schemes seen is shown alongside your status.

DiligenceHub cannot know about a scheme it has never seen, so make sure every scheme is captured – if FCSA becomes aware that you operate PAYE Reference that is not being Verified here, we reserve the right to terminate your DiligenceHub account.