`The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
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The rate of late payment interest encourages prompt payment and ensures fairness for those who pay their tax on time, while the rate of repayment interest fairly compensates taxpayers for loss of use of their money when they overpay. Therefore, as payroll professionals to remain complaint it is vital to have a controlled schedule of your PAYE payments and ensure the correct unique reference is used. You can read more on the topic on the GOV.UK site. Guidance link for information on the interest rates for payments on GOV.UK will be updated shortly.
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HMRC to trial QR codes on communications Published: 3 February 2023 Emailed: 8 February 2023
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has confirmed that they will trial the use of QR codes on the SA250 welcome letters to individuals who sign up for self assessment.
The trial will test customer’s Use of QR codes and will also mean the removal of contact numbers from the form to encourage use of digital routes. HMRC state that information can be accessed quickly and easily, allowing phone advisors to better serve customers with more complex queries.
HMRC also advise that they have considered all security risks before making any changes, and anyone suspecting that communications are a phishing scam should contact them to report it.
If you are unsure if a communication is from HMRC, we would advise getting the contact details from GOV.UK directly to ensure their authenticity.
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HMRC guidance: AWE for statutory payments and mistimed payments guidance updated
Published: 9 February 2023 Emailed: 15 February 2023
Mistimed payments when calculating AWE
HMRC’s guid ance around calculating average weekly earnings (AWE) for maternity pay while dealing with mistimed payments has been amended.
The CIPP materials team raised concerns with discrepancies in the guidance pages surrounding how to calculate an employee’s AWE when there is a mistimed payment, such as an early Christmas payday.
The guidance on the Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) calculator explains that the normal payday should be used as the start of the relevant period, whereas the Statutory Payments Manual provided detailed examples which used the early payday as the start of the relevant period and included up to three monthly payments for a monthly employee. The Statutory Payments Manual has now been updated to mirror the advice given on the SMP calculator, confirming that the normal payday is the start of the relevant period (not the early pay date).
The guidance in the HMRC Internal Manual provided incorrect dates and used an additional month in error in the example calculation. This guidance has now been corrected.
Underpayments and overpayments when calculating AWE
Additionally, a conflicting statement in the manual has now been removed which indicated that mistimed payments should not be used to calculate AWE. The correct process is outlined in the Statutory Maternity Pay guidance and states:
“ Underpayments and overpayments
If there are over or underpaid earnings affecting the AWE which disadvantages either you or the employee, check if there’s documentary e vidence agreeing to the amount that should have been paid.
cipp.org.uk
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