9 May 2024

HMRC has recently made changes to it’s online service. This means that if you’re using Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Server 2008, Server 2012 or 2012R2 on your computer, you won’t be able to submit online returns to HMRC via Payroll Manager.

On 9 May 2024 HMRC removed support for ‘CBC ciphers’, which are used by some old, unsupported versions of Windows to encrypt the data during online submissions, and if you attempt to submit RTI (or CIS) returns then you are likely to receive an error message stating that the connection to HMRC is being blocked.

Unfortunately there is no workaround, other than to switch to a supported version of Windows (i.e Windows 10 or 11)

To determine which version of Windows that is currently installed on your computer, hold down the ‘Windows‘ and ‘R‘ keys on your keyboard, enter the word winver into the box that appears, and click ‘OK‘.

A screen will appear giving details of which Windows operating system you are running.

For instructions of how to move Payroll Manager to a new computer please see Moving Payroll Manager to a new computer