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FPS or EPS Rejected by HMRC? RTI Error Codes Explained and Fixed
Most rejected FPS and EPS submissions fail for one of three reasons: wrong login or PAYE details, a character HMRC will not accept, or a submission sent outside HMRC's filing window. Find your error code below. Each row says what it means and who can fix it.
Sumcraft Editorial Team9 min read
Checked on 21 October 2026. Updated 24 October 2026 with a section for Xero Payroll users. Codes 1000 to 3001 come from HMRC's own Transaction Engine guide. HMRC does not publish a plain-English list of the payroll business codes, so those meanings come from payroll software providers' help pages, named in each row. We have not tested these fixes ourselves.
Watch out for fake helplines. Some pages that rank for these errors list phone numbers that are not HMRC's or your software provider's. GOV.UK lists HMRC's Employer Helpline as 0300 200 3200. It is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm.
Login and connection errors
These codes come from HMRC's Transaction Engine, the system that receives every online submission. The wording is HMRC's own.
| Code | What HMRC says | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1000 | System failure: the submission failed due to an internal system error | Wait and resubmit |
| 1001 | The XML document failed to validate against the schema, or was badly formed | Update your payroll software. If it persists, contact your software provider |
| 1002 | Authentication failure | Check your Government Gateway user ID and password |
| 1046 | The supplied user credentials failed validation for the requested service | Retype your user ID, password and PAYE reference. Check for 1/I/l and O/0 mix-ups |
| 2005 | No acknowledgement received from the back-end system in time | Resubmit, or contact HMRC |
| 3000 | Processing of your submission failed. Please re-submit | Resubmit |
| 3001 | The submission failed due to departmental business logic | A data or scheme problem. Look for a more specific code in the same message |
Moneysoft notes that new Government Gateway credentials can take up to two weeks to activate. If you set them up recently, a 1046 may clear on its own.
Data errors: names, addresses and NI details
| Code | Meaning | What to do | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4065 | Invalid content found at element | Remove special characters such as ~ @ # $ ^ _ { } [ \ ] from names and addresses. Fill in any empty required fields | IRIS |
| 4065 | (as above) | Remove leading spaces from addresses and names. Use a straight apostrophe in names such as O'Connor. Check NI numbers | Moneysoft |
| 4085 | A value does not have the correct format | Apply the same checks as 4065 | Moneysoft |
| 4999 | Internal schema validation error | Update your software, then contact its support team | Sage |
| 7829 | Fewer than two address lines for a new starter | Add a second address line to the employee record | Moneysoft |
| 7932 | Employee address missing | Add the employee's address | Moneysoft |
| 7841 | No starter form provided | Complete the new starter details for the employee | Sage |
| 7955 | NI letter B is invalid for a date of birth after 5 April 1961 | Change the employee's NI category letter, most often to A | Moneysoft |
HMRC scheme errors: only HMRC can fix these
| Code | Meaning | What to do | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7801 | Accounts Office reference or employer PAYE reference is incorrect | Check both references in your payroll settings against HMRC's letters | Sage |
| 7802 | You have not been invited to submit this submission type | PAYE may not be added to your HMRC online account, an agent may not be authorised, or HMRC may have closed the scheme. Call the Employer Helpline | FreeAgent |
| 7804 | Cannot be accepted as a Full Payment Submission has not been received | Send the FPS first, then the EPS | Sage |
| 7806 | Not within the eligible filing period | The scheme may not have been active for that period. Call the Employer Helpline | Moneysoft |
| 7815 | The employer scheme has been cancelled | Sage says this follows at least three months of £0 submissions. Call HMRC | Sage |
Timing errors: sent too early or too late
| Code | Meaning | What to do | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7911 | HMRC will not accept a nil EPS until after the 5th of the following month | Wait until after the 5th and resend | Moneysoft |
| 7918 | An EPS was sent for a period HMRC no longer accepts | Each EPS is due by the 19th of the following tax month | Sage |
| 7927 | Only valid if submitted between 6 February and 19 April inclusive | This is the window for tax month 12 | Sage |
| 7809 | Submitted after 19 April following the tax year | Correct the earlier year as GOV.UK describes below. Ask your software provider which route it supports | Moneysoft |
| 5045 | You have already filed an original return | Send a corrected submission instead of a new original | Sage |
FPS and EPS deadlines
- FPS: send it on or before your employees' payday. If payday falls on a non-banking day, you can report on the next banking day using late reporting reason G.
- EPS: send it by the 19th of the following tax month. Use an EPS instead of an FPS if you paid no employees in a tax month.
Both come from GOV.UK's guidance on running payroll.
How to correct an FPS or EPS
GOV.UK sets out these routes:
- Mistake in the current tax year (FPS): update the year-to-date figures in your next regular FPS.
- Wrong payment date: send an additional FPS with the correct date by the 19th of the tax month after the original. Use late reporting reason H, "correction to earlier submission".
- Mistake in an earlier tax year from 6 April 2020 to 5 April 2024 (FPS): submit another FPS with the correct year-to-date figures.
- Mistake on an EPS: send an EPS with the correct year-to-date figures for the tax year of the mistake.
- PAYE bill still wrong: contact HMRC if it is still wrong by the 12th of the next tax month.
"Questions and declarations" errors at year end
The seven year-end checklist questions stopped being mandatory on 6 March 2015, according to the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals. Employers still mark the final submission for the year. If your software raises a questions and declarations error, check you are on its latest version. Then ask its support team, because the fix depends on the software.
Using Xero Payroll?
Xero shows HMRC's rejection inside the pay run, but the code means the same thing as in the tables above. These points come from Xero's own help centre and its staff replies.
| Problem in Xero | What Xero says | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| RTI submission declined | Xero's help article "Fix a declined RTI submission" says the HMRC credentials entered into Xero have not been accepted by HMRC | Open Payroll Settings, then the HMRC tab. Retype your Government Gateway user ID, password and PAYE references |
| "Your User ID or password is incorrect" when connecting to HMRC | Xero's article "Fix errors when connecting payroll to HMRC" says HMRC passwords are case sensitive | Retype the password exactly. If you changed it on GOV.UK, update it in Xero too |
| A pay run needs correcting after you posted it | A Xero admin said on 27 January 2026 that amendments go through an unscheduled pay run. This sends a new RTI with updated year-to-date figures | Process an unscheduled pay run. Xero cannot edit an RTI it has already sent |
| HMRC's service is down | Xero posts HMRC outages that affect UK payroll on its status page | Check status.xero.com before you resubmit |
One Xero user's feature request from September 2026 says Xero shows no warning when a pay run has been processed but its RTI has not been submitted. After every pay run, check that the submission shows as sent.
Quick answers for Xero
- Why won't Xero connect to HMRC? Most often the HMRC login details saved in Xero are wrong or out of date. Check them on the HMRC tab in Payroll Settings. Then check Xero's status page for an HMRC outage.
- How do I submit an EPS in Xero? Xero documents its EPS steps in its help centre. We could not load those pages to check them, so we do not repeat the steps here. The EPS deadline is the same in any software: the 19th of the following tax month.
- What do the error codes in Xero mean? Xero passes on HMRC's own codes. Look up the four-digit code in the tables above.
- How do I correct a payroll error in Xero? Use an unscheduled pay run. It sends HMRC corrected year-to-date figures.
Using Sage 50 Payroll?
Sage keeps its own list of HMRC submission errors, with fixes for its software. If you use HMRC's free software and it will not open, see our Basic PAYE Tools fixes. Start with Sage's HMRC submission errors article. For MTD for Income Tax rejections, see our MTD quarterly update errors guide.
Sources, checked 21 October 2026. Xero sources checked 24 October 2026:
- HMRC: Transaction Engine document submission protocol (version 2.0)
- GOV.UK: running payroll
- GOV.UK: fix problems with running payroll
- GOV.UK: employers general enquiries helpline
- Sage: HMRC submission errors (modified 10 February 2026)
- Moneysoft: HMRC error messages
- IRIS: Error 4065
- FreeAgent: payroll submission error codes
- CIPP: removal of year-end questions and declarations (2 February 2015)
- Xero Central: help centre for Xero Payroll ("Fix a declined RTI submission"; "Fix errors when connecting payroll to HMRC")
- Xero Product Ideas: amend previous RTI submissions, with Xero's reply of 27 January 2026
- Xero Product Ideas: alert for RTI files not submitted (3 September 2026)
- Xero status: HMRC tax reporting incident (10 August 2022)
- Payroll
- HMRC
- RTI
- Xero
- Sage 50 Payroll
- Small business