Payroll news
Payroll news
Calculating AWE for SSP and SMP GUIDANCE ON what to do where an under- or overpayment affects the calculation of average weekly earnings (AWE) for statutory sick pay (SSP) and statutory maternity pay (SMP) which disadvantages either the employee or the employer, has been added to the GOV.UK website (http://bit.ly/2jVynt2 and http://bit.ly/2jVUZK7, respectively). The guidance for calculating AWE for statutory adoption pay and statutory paternity has not (yet) been amended. If there is documentary evidence of an agreement as to the amount that should have been paid, the agreed earnings are to be used to calculate the AWE; and where there is no agreement, the actual earnings are to be used. Pregnancy and maternity discrimination THE GOVERNMENT has published its response to a report by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee (http://bit.ly/2jAyI1C). The response includes the following: ● Recommendation – The Government should implement a system similar to that used in Germany under which such women can be made redundant only in specified circumstances. This protection should apply throughout pregnancy and maternity leave and for six months afterwards. The Government should implement this change within the next two years. ❍ Response – Government will consider further and bring forward proposals to ensure that the protections in place for those who are pregnant or returning from maternity leave are sufficient. ● Recommendation – The Government should set out ambitious targets for reducing the level of pregnancy and maternity discrimination within the next two years. It should review its monitoring figures at least annually for evidence that pregnancy and maternity discrimination levels are decreasing significantly, and publish this review. If there is insufficient progress within the next two years, the Government should set out what further action it will take to tackle discrimination. ❍ Response – The Government will seek to undertake representative research into pregnancy and maternity-related discrimination and disadvantage among mothers and employers in Great Britain using similar survey methodology to that carried out in 2014–15. The research will therefore be representative of mothers and employers in Great Britain. Diary dates
D-prefix tax codes THE TECHNICAL specifications for both pay as you earn real time information submissions to HMRC and for retrieval of coding notices from the data provisioning service have been updated to allow for a wider range of D-prefix codes. These updates, which are in response to Scotland’s income tax power for tax year 2017–18, bring the submission/retrieval specifications in line with the tax calculation document Specification for PAYE tax table routine, which already allows for higher D codes. Software which incorporates these new specifications would then be ready to support the submission and retrieval of these codes, should they be introduced in future. Public sector exit payments cap A COMMENCEMENT order has brought section 41 of the Enterprise Act 2016 into force on 1 February 2017. The legislation restricts exit payments payable to employees of prescribed public sector authorities or holders of prescribed public sector offices as a consequence of them leaving employment or office to a maximum value of £95,000. An exit payment for the purposes of the Act includes any payment: ● on account of dismissal by reason of redundancy ● on voluntary exit ● to reduce or eliminate an actuarial reduction to a pension on early retirement or in respect of the cost to a pension scheme of such a reduction not being made ● ex gratia ● in respect of an outstanding entitlement ● of compensation under the terms of a contract ● in lieu of notice ● in the form of shares or share options. Payrolling of car benefits REPORTING OF cars and car fuel where the employer operates ‘payrolling’ is optional from tax year 2017–18 but mandatory from tax year 2018–19. Data items 175–186 in the pay as you earn real time information full payment submission are to be used for reporting these. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has released guidance – Software developer car data guidance (http://bit.ly/2juIRRD) – which sets out, amongst other things, the frequency of reporting of the data and what is required for each data item. Guidance for employers is to be published by HMRC.
Automatic enrolment staging date for employers with fewer than thirty employees with the last two characters in their PAYE reference number: P1–P9, PA–PZ
1 March
5 March
Last day of tax month 11
6 March
First day of tax month 12
Last day for submitting a real time information employer payment summary to apply to tax month 11 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 Automatic enrolment staging date for employers with fewer than thirty employees with the last two characters in their PAYE reference number: 84–91, 93–99
19 March
22 March
1 April
5 April
Last day of tax month 12 and tax year 2016–17
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Issue 28 | March 2017
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
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