Payroll news
Automatic adjustments to tax codes FROM APRIL 2017, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will use pay as you earn (PAYE) real time information it receives in full payment submissions from employers and pension payers to assess during the tax year whether taxpayers are likely to owe a balance at the close of the tax year. Where HMRC identify this circumstance, from May 2017 an automatic adjustment will be made to the person’s PAYE tax code and issued to the employer/pension payer. Guidance A RANGE of guidance content has been released or updated by HMRC in recent months. ● Optional remuneration – Draft updates to HMRC’s Employment Income Manual can be found at http://bit.ly/2nG1hQG. The new guidance will be finalised and published following Royal Assent of Finance Bill 2017. ● Pension advice exemption – Guidance on the new statutory tax exemption of £500, which operates from 6 April 2017 in respect of relevant pensions advice, can be found at http://bit.ly/2n7azWE. ● Directors’ and officers’ liabilities and expenses – Guidance which includes details of the amended provisions effective from 6 April 2017, can be found at http://bit.ly/2o5AVra. ● Apprenticeship levy – Guidance on how the levy will operate in situations where a new PAYE scheme is set up for an employer with pooled PAYE scheme and with pooled payrolls generally can be found HMRC’s Apprenticeship Levy Manual (http://bit.ly/2n7hEGF). Failure to pay NMW/NLW IN FEBRUARY, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy named 359 businesses that who underpaid 15,513 workers a total of £994,685 in wages under national minimum/living wage (NMW/NLW) legislation. Employers in the hairdressing, hospitality and retail sectors are the most prolific offenders, but Tesco plc is among those that failed to pay the NLW to around 140,000 former and current employees. It is thought that Tesco’s underpayment bill is around £10million. Pauline Foulkes and Joanne McGuinnes, national officers for the trade union Usdaw, commented that “The issue relates to the operation of a number of voluntary benefits, including pensions, childcare vouchers and cycle to work, that the company offers via salary sacrifice schemes. This has resulted in pay after salary sacrifice not reaching the required [NLW] levels for some staff. Our priority now is to agree measures with Tesco to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Cheque clearance times A NEW industry-wide image-based cheque clearing system will speed up cheque processing significantly across the UK. The new system will initially go live with some banks and building societies from 30 October 2017 with the rest of the UK’s banks and building societies moving to the new system from July 2018. The new system will mean that a person paying in a cheque on a weekday will be able to withdraw the funds by 23.59 on the next weekday. Some banks and building societies may choose to offer customers the option of paying- in an image of the cheque – by using a secure mobile banking app on their smartphone or tablet – rather than having to go to a bank to pay it in. Holiday pay case appeal THE SUPREME Court has refused application by British Gas to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case Lock and another v British Gas Trading. This case was about whether holiday pay must include compensation for any results-based commission that would ordinarily be earned by the worker. Tax fraudster pair jailed THE DIRECTOR of Motherwell based MDH Fire and Security Services Limited, and his former wife, have been jailed for a total of six years and nine months for stealing £815,000 in income tax, National Insurance contributions and value added tax. The money was used to fund Michael and Donna Howard’s lifestyles which included luxurious trips abroad. HMRC’s investigation, which led to the prosecutions, revealed that the pair gave the frauds a veneer of legitimacy by creating false payslips and paperwork. Action to recover the money owed to HMRC has started. Dave Prentis, general secretary of trade union UNISON, said: “It’s taken nearly five years to get here, but now all employees who earn commission will see that reflected in their holiday pay. This is an employment right based on [the Working Time Directive] … that could well disappear once the UK finds itself outside the [European Union].”
Diary dates
Automatic enrolment staging date for new employers where PAYE income first payable between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013
1 May
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
19 May
22 May
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | May 2017 | Issue 30 14
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