Compliance
an employee’s pay for the purpose of calculating income tax and/or National Insurance contributions (NICs) but which do not actually increase cash earnings. An example is the value of a non-qualifying childcare voucher the employer provides to an employee which is subject to class 1 NICs via the payroll. Where employers opt to payroll the benefits of their employees the notional value of an annual benefit is taxed via the payroll according to the number of pay days that an employee has within a tax year. Where employees are paid monthly, for example, the annual taxable notional value of the benefit will be divided by twelve and included in each pay period. Some extremely burdensome rules can apply to notional payments such as where the actual amount of pay available in a pay period is insufficient to cover the tax and primary class 1 NICs deductible from the employee’s earnings. ● Parental leave – Commonly, statutory leave, such as statutory maternity leave, is referred to as a type of parental leave, but this is not technically correct. Parental leave refers to the entitlement of
employees to take unpaid time off work to look after a child or to make arrangements for the welfare of a child, up until they reach age 18. ...such as where the employee has entered into an agreement with a third party (e.g. for provision of broadband service). Some employers will pay employees for parental leave, but often they will not; so individuals are advised to check their contracts. Parental leave should be taken in blocks of a week at a time, and a maximum of four weeks a year per child is allowed. If, however, the individual receives a disability living allowance or personal independence payment for their child, then they can
take leave more flexibly, and so could potentially take leave for less than a week. There are eligibility criteria that must be met. In addition to the child being under the age of 18, the employee: must have been in the employment for over a year; must be named on the child’s birth or adoption certificate or have, or expect to have, parental responsibility; cannot be self-employed or a ‘worker’; and cannot be a foster parent. ● Pecuniary liability – This is a term that makes payroll professionals shudder. In short, pecuniary liability arises where an employer pays (whether directly or via reimbursement) an employee’s bill or debt such as where the employee has entered into an agreement with a third party (e.g. for provision of broadband service). The payment is of direct monetary value to the employee. Depending on the circumstances, the payment is taxable and subject to class 1 NICs. n If there are any other terms you think should be covered, please contact the policy team, at policy@cipp.org.uk .
Individuals and businesses are encouraged to recognise, avoid and report the wide and increasing range of scams that aim to obtain information andmoney Avoiding scams
C riminals are using every opportunity they can to scam innocent people and their businesses. They are experts at impersonating people, organisations, and the police, and spend hours researching their scams, hoping their potential victims will let their guard down for just a moment. Contacting their victims by phone, email, text, social media, or in person, they will try to trick them into parting with their money, personal information, or buying goods or services that do not exist. Many scams mimic government messages to appear authentic and reassuring. To help protect individuals and businesses from these criminals, law enforcement, government and industry are working together to identify fraudulent websites, prevent phishing emails, block phone numbers, and ultimately bring those responsible to justice. As part of this
strategy, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has pioneered the use in government of technical controls to stop its helpline numbers being spoofed, so that fraudsters cannot make it appear they are calling from them. In the twelve months to 30 April 2021, HMRC responded to more than 1,154,300 referrals of suspicious contact from the public, of which over 576,960 (broadly, one in two) offered bogus tax rebates. In the same period, HMRC worked with telecoms companies and Ofcom to remove more than 3,000 malicious telephone numbers, and with internet service providers to take down over 15,700 malicious web pages. The department responded to 443,033 reports of phone scams in total, up 135% on the previous year. Tax refund scams are rife. A recent scam identified on Twitter offers a tax refund, but
HMRC never uses social media to offer a tax rebate or request personal or financial information, and never sends notifications by email about tax rebates or refunds. Among the actions individuals can take is to check GOV.UK for HMRC’s scams checklist to find out how to report tax scams and for information on how to recognise genuine HMRC contact. n Guidance and reporting ● For a checklist of genuine HMRC contacts, visit https://bit.ly/3A44vji. ● Examples of HMRC related phishing emails, suspicious phone calls and texts, can be found here: https://bit. ly/3y3pbWH. ● To report suspicious HMRC emails, text messages and phone calls visit: https://bit.ly/3A8aovI. ● To report suspicions or incidents go to www.actionfraud.police.uk.
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 72 | July / August 2021
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