Professional April 2021

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removed and therefore, the savings gained would have to be repaid to HMRC. For reference, HMRC provide guidance

For reference, see guidance from HMRC (https://bit.ly/3dkaBDg) and ACAS (https://bit.ly/3ap9ErB), and regulation 4(b) of the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 4(b) (https://bit.ly/2NaIE6e). These all state that commission and bonuses are part of the reporting requirements. Q: When an employer starts payrolling benefits from the new tax year, will there be a risk of double tax being collected following the submission of the final P11D returns from the previous tax year as well as tax being collected at source for the current year? A: It depends on the type of benefit. For benefits such as company car benefits, HMRC is collecting tax in real time through the tax code because it anticipates the ongoing provision following the submission of form P46 car. For ad hoc benefits, these will be reported after July and HMRC would adjust the tax code later. So, in theory, the employee’s tax code may change after July to collect any extra tax. Q: Are there any plans for HMRC to review gender reporting in PAYE real time information (RTI)? We have non- binary employees (meaning they do not experience gender exclusively as a male or female) who we are currently unable to log accurately in the full payment submission returns. A: The CIPP’s policy and research team kindly put this question to HMRC which has confirmed in their response that the issue with limited gender options is not in any way restricted to PAYE RTI but extends across HMRC and wider government. Gender recognition is the responsibility of the Government Equalities Office (GEO) and at present there are no known recommendations regarding gender recognition. Until such time as GEO make any decisions around this, which will require legislation, there will not be any changes within HMRC. n

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relating to childcare expenses and benefits: https://bit.ly/3u31VXR.

Q: When calculating the average weekly earnings (AWE) for statutory maternity pay (SMP), HMRC guidance states that we must include all earnings on which class 1 NICs are due or would be due if they were high enough. Our company has paid employees £26 per month for the home working allowance. Would we be correct to exclude these amounts from the calculation? A: The AWE are calculated on NICable pay. The work from home allowance is paid free from tax and NICs so, therefore, it would not be included in the calculation for SMP. Q: Can an employee ask to have their salary paid into their friend’s account? A: Employers should take the side of caution when receiving such requests from employees. There is potentially a money laundering issue, as an employer cannot check the validity of the friend’s bank account. An employer could also not ensure that the cash was being directed to the employee which may raise concerns regarding modern day slavery. It might be worth contacting ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) regarding this issue. Also, if an error in the bank account occurred there would be nothing an employer could do to assist the employee. For example, if the friend had overdrawn their account the bank may not allow them to draw the cash for your employee. There could also be a refusal to provide the employee with the funds for their work. There are potentially many risks to the employee that it would be best practice not to allow a request such as this to be granted. There are other methods of paying the employee such as via cash or cheque. Q: Should we include commission payments to our employees in our gender pay gap reporting? A: Yes, commission and bonus would both be included in the calculation, but not overtime.

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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |

Issue 69 | April 2021

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