HMRC Basic PAYE Tools vs Symmetry Tax Engine

HMRC Basic PAYE Tools is free payroll software for employers with fewer than 10 employees. It calculates employee tax and National Insurance, sends payroll information to HMRC, and supports Full Payment Submissions and Employer Payment Summaries. Employers can add details for up to nine employees and use calculators for statutory sick, maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, parental bereavement, and neonatal care pay. The tool can create payslips to save as PDFs, print, or email with employee agreement. It can also be used alongside commercial payroll software for certain National Insurance number checks or Employer Payment Summary submissions. Employers need to register with HMRC and have a PAYE Online login before using it. The software runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It does not support pension auto-enrolment or pension contribution calculations, and employers must secure and back up payroll data themselves; HMRC does not keep a copy or recover lost data.

Symmetry Tax Engine calculates gross-to-net payroll taxes for software platforms, payroll providers, employers, and payment companies. It covers federal, state, local, and employer taxes across all 50 U.S. states, U.S. territories including Puerto Rico, and Canada, with calculations for more than 7,000 jurisdictions. Listed tax types include federal withholding, FICA, paid family and medical leave, unemployment and disability taxes, benefits and pre-tax benefit rules, and local taxes such as city, county, school district, and municipality taxes. Deployment is available as a hosted Web API or an on-premise SDK installed in a customer’s environment. The API supports JSON and XML; the SDK supports Windows, Linux, and macOS, with interfaces including C/C++, Java, .NET, .NET Core, and Delphi. The paid product has no free plan, offers a trial by contacting Symmetry, and has pricing on request. Symmetry is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, and was founded in 1984.