EPS and Employment Allowance

The Employment Allowance lets eligible employers reduce their employer's Class 1 National Insurance bill, up to an annual cap. Check whether you are eligible each tax year on gov.uk: Claim Employment Allowance.

Claim it in Kontala

1. Open the account menu and choose Company Details.
2. Under Employment allowance, choose Claim (or Don't claim to stop claiming).
3. Choose Save changes.

When claimed, each pay run offsets your employer NI with the allowance, up to the cap. The run shows the Employment Allowance amount it used, and the Year-to-date card on the payroll overview shows the total so far.

How the EPS is filed

An Employer Payment Summary (EPS) is the RTI submission that tells HMRC you claim the allowance; HMRC then applies it to what you owe. Kontala files one EPS per tax year, and it carries the claim only - HMRC works out the amounts.

When you complete the tax year's first pay run that claims the allowance, Kontala records the EPS alongside that run's FPS. As soon as the FPS is accepted, the EPS is filed automatically with the same Government Gateway sign-in, so filing the FPS normally sends both.

On the completed run, the EA claim (EPS) status shows its progress, with the same statuses as the FPS. If it still shows Not filed, choose File EA claim. The claim cannot be sent until the run's FPS has been accepted, and once it is Filed the claim is done for the tax year.

Like the FPS, submitting the EPS to HMRC needs the Full Access permission level - see User permission levels.