An error occurred while attempting to communicate with the Government Gateway
Article ID
11623
Article Name
An error occurred while attempting to communicate with the Government Gateway
Created Date
6th April 2017
Product
IRIS PAYE-Master, IRIS Payroll Business, IRIS Bureau Payroll, IRIS GP Payroll, IRIS Payroll Professional, Earnie, IRIS Earnie IQ
Problem
When trying to send RTI submissions user gets the following error:
Resolution
Following the HMRC decision to retire support for SSLv3 a number of customers have experienced the above error message when trying to submit RTI returns to the government gateway, even though their internet connection is working correctly.
This is due to a configuration issue with the users’ internet settings, preventing the software from using enhanced security protocols to communicate with HMRC.
To review your PC internet security options go to “Control Panel” > “Network and Internet” > “Internet Options“
Open the “Advanced” tab, scroll down the “Settings” checkbox list and make sure the options “Use TLS 1.0“, “Use TLS 1.1” & “Use TLS 1.2” are all ticked:
Click “Apply” and then “OK“.
You must then close and reopen payroll, once you are logged back in you will be able to send RTI submissions.
PLEASE NOTE: If you are unable to amend the options for “Use TLS 1.0“, “Use TLS 1.1” & “Use TLS 1.2” or they are not present in the list of settings you will need to refer to your IT support/Administrator.
SSLv3 Statement from HMRC
“Government Gateway SSLv3 disabled 10 October 2016
On 30 September 2015, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) made a change so that if you were using the SSLv3 protocol to connect to our services you were no longer able to. For the majority of online customers this meant no change as they were already using a more secure protocol (such as TLS1.0, TLS1.1 or TLS1.2) by default.
Government Gateway will be disabling SSLv3 on a permanent basis on 10 October 2016.
If you’re uncertain about the type of secure connection your browser or other software can support, you can check it at Your SSL client is Bad and other similar services.
If you’re still using the SSLv3 protocol it is advised that you use a more secure protocol to connect to Government Gateway.”
If you have checked the TLS settings as described above and all three options are ticked, but the user is still getting the error message there are additional configuration settings to be checked.
This is not a software issue. In all reported cases of this error, it has been caused by something configured (or not configured) in Windows.
If the above settings have not corrected the error please refer to this additional information for help resolving the issue:
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