The draft legislation released in the Finance Bill of 2026 on the 21st of July confirmed that HMRC intends to apply joint and several liability rules as part of their changes to make agencies or end clients liable in the event of an Umbrella company failing to meet its PAYE liabilities.
With current compliance accreditations, payslip checks and RTI verifications failing to provide any protection against these liabilities, Professional Passport has built an entirely new approach.
This has been designed specifically to address many of the shortcomings and risks that have arisen as a result of this proposed legislation.
It has been in development for some time as it’s been clear that significant change was on the horizon.
We’ve waited until we’ve seen the details of the draft legislation, which has allowed us to finalise processes and procedures and ensure alignment and reduced risk profiling.
Professional Passport Fortis has been designed to provide a single upload for an agency or end client for all of the workers across all of their Umbrella companies, creating a one-touch approach.
A major part of the development was to produce our own payroll engine as a starting point. We needed to ensure there could be no manipulation of code, and we had full visibility and transparency of the system, as we had seen and heard of examples where this could very easily be the case.
Once the agency uploads their timesheets into Fortis, an alert is sent to all the relevant Umbrella companies to confirm the timesheets have been uploaded, and a payroll will need to be run.
Fortis then provides a report back to the agency that gives a breakdown by Umbrella company and worker of all deductions and PAYE tax due.
Fortis provides a report on the amount of money that should be sent to each umbrella, which excludes any liabilities for PAYE.
The PAYE liabilities are also confirmed by umbrella with their relevant PAYE reference.
Agencies should pay this directly to HMRC with the relevant PAYE reference.
This completes your full demonstrable audit trail that you have paid all the liabilities for all your workers.
AS HMRC will only hold you liable up to the amount of PAYE due on your workers, this process evidences this and therefore removes you from the risks that come with collective liability.
We are currently running pilot groups for MSPs, agencies and end clients. If this is something you are interested in, find out more by contacting us at info@professionalpassport.com.
