Payroll news
Increase of limits THE EMPLOYMENT Rights (Increase of Limits) Order (Northern Ireland) 2019 has revised the limits on awards and payments under certain employment rights legislation in Northern Ireland with effect from 6 April 2019. ● Guarantee payment – The limit on amount of guarantee payment payable to an employee in respect of any day increases to £29.00. ● Week’s pay – The maximum amount of ‘a week’s pay’ for the purpose of calculating a redundancy payment or for various awards including the basic or additional award of compensation for unfair dismissal, increases to £547. (Note this is higher than the amount applicable in England, Wales and Scotland of £525.)
Deliberate tax defaulters HMRC HAS recently published details of those who deliberately get their tax affairs wrong. These defaulters have received penalties either for deliberate errors in their tax returns or for deliberately failing to comply with their tax obligations. HMRC is able to publish information about a deliberate tax defaulter where it has carried out an investigation and the person has been charged one or more penalties for deliberate defaults, and those penalties involve tax of more than £25,000. The information published comprises details to identify the deliberate tax defaulter, the penalties imposed, and the amount of tax on which those penalties are based. Among the listed entries as at March 2019 are Universal Project Services Ltd and Universal Payroll Services Ltd, both located in London, with business trade or occupation shown as ‘payroll services’. The total amount of penalties charged are £4,651,333.75 and £7,224,150.66, respectively (http://bit.ly/2UvOSQD).
Overseas scale rates SUBSEQUENT TO the government’s announcement at Autumn Budget 2017 that it would give legal force to the concessionary overseas scale rate payment system operated by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), legislation in Finance Act 2019 has inserted new section 289A(2A) into the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003. This new section creates an income tax exemption for certain amounts which have been paid or reimbursed to an employee in respect of travel expenses if they have been calculated and paid or reimbursed in accordance with regulations made by HMRC. The Income Tax (Approved Expenses) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 – which were made under powers in section 289A(2A) – came into force in March 2019 and have effect in relation to payments made in tax year 2019–20 and subsequent tax years. The amending regulations inserted a new regulation 3 in the Income Tax (Approved Expenses) Regulations 2015 so that an amount is calculated and paid or reimbursed in accordance with these regulations if it is paid or reimbursed to an employee in respect of expenses in the course of qualifying travel outside the United Kingdom and it does not exceed the relevant rate or rates for such expenses published by HMRC. Employers can use HMRC’s rates as the maximum amounts for paying or reimbursing accommodation and subsistence expenses to employees, whose duties require them to travel abroad, free of tax and National Insurance contributions. Employers using the overseas scale rate will not have to check employee receipts. HMRC’s scale rate expenses payments for employees travelling outside the UK can be found here: http://bit.ly/2UN04rf.
Scottish income tax THE MINISTRY of Defence
Employer Bulletins IN APRIL, HMRC published issue 77 of its
announced in March that 8,000 armed forces personnel who could have been adversely affected by the Scottish government’s income tax rises for tax year 2019–20, will continue to be protected. Personnel will be compensated with an annual payment to make sure that regardless of where they are deployed or where their families are based, they will receive similar take-home pay. The financial mitigation measures mean between £12 and £2,200 will be paid to personnel, with payments grossed up to take account of income tax and National Insurance contributions applied when they are made.
Employer Bulletin (http://bit.ly/2IcZvkI) series, and also issue 1 of its new EU Exit version (http://bit. ly/2IbaZoV). Issue 77 contains extensive information about a wide range of matters, including: ● apprenticeship levy funds transfer limit increase ● unpaid work trials and the national minimum wage ● reporting expenses and benefits in kind for the tax year ending 5 April 2019. Issue 1 of EU Exit, contains the following content relevant to employers and payroll professionals: ● changes for UK employers sending workers to the EU, the EEA or Switzerland in a no deal situation ● access to benefits if the UK leaves the EU without a deal ● the EU Settlement Scheme.
Diary dates
5 May 6 May
Last day of tax month 1
First day of tax month 2
Last day for submitting a real time information employer payment summary to apply to tax month 1 Deadline for payment of PAYE and NICs etc to HMRC’s Accounts Office by non-electronic method Deadline for payment of PAYE and NICs etc to HMRC’s Accounts Office by electronic method Due date by which employees are to receive P60 certificate for tax year 2018–19
19 May
22 May
31 May
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | May 2019 | Issue 50 20
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