You don't have to pay by BACS. If you do pay by BACS (which isn't the same thing as internet banking) then your payroll software needs to mark up the payment with a tag that the BACS authorities pass on the HMRC so they can cross reference actual payments with the RTI submissions. If you don't pay by BACS then HMRC cannot do that cross reference.
HMRC seems to be unaware that information that assumes that direct BACS is a likely payment method is irrelevant (and misleading and confusing) to above 95% of employers. We have about 10,000 employers managing their payroll using 12Pay, and I don't suppose that 10 of them have direct BACS accounts for paying their employees.
-- Edited by Tom McClelland on Tuesday 20th of November 2012 10:41:45 AM
This is an interesting one, I do Payroll for 3 Directors, 2 belong to one company and another director for a different company. Although I do the payroll, I have nothing to do with the Payroll payments, I email the payslips to them and they pay themselves. I also don't do the bookkeeping for either of the 2 companies. I believe they both pay themselves by BACS.
