Payroll news
SSP review REFORM OF statutory sick pay (SSP) is proposed in Improving lives The work, health and disability green paper (http://bit.ly/2fnvIIF) so that it better encourages supportive conversations between employers and absent employees and phased returns to work. The green paper identifies an approach to reforming SSP to allow phased returns so that where an employee would earn less than the SSP weekly rate of £88.45 in returning on reduced hours, the employer would be able to ‘top up’ their wages to the SSP level. This would mean that the maximum amount of SSP and/or pay spent by employers and received by employees during a period of transition back from sickness remains constant. This approach would not prevent an employer from paying SSP on a pro rata basis alongside wages. In this case a person’s income would reflect a proportion of SSP for hours not worked, and paid wages for the period worked, potentially offering an income above the basic allowance, and a greater incentive for the individual to return to work as part of a phased return.
Alignment of tax and NICs THE OFFICE of Tax Simplification (OTS) has published the document Closer alignment of income tax and national insurance : a further review (http://bit.ly/2fQZMez). This report presents further findings following the request of ministers for the OTS to drill down into the numbers to get a fuller picture of the potential impacts of options for closer alignment that were proposed by the OTS earlier in 2016. The OTS comments that “We do not underestimate nor seek to diminish the amount of work that will be needed to effect the changes we propose, nor their impact. We believe the case has been made, in seeking to build consensus for a reform program that will deliver a NICs [National Insurance contributions] system aligned more closely with income tax and that is fit for everyone in the 21st century working environment.” Statutory maternity leave and CCVs FOLLOWING THE Employment Appeal Tribunal’s decision in Peninsula Business services v Donaldson, regarding child care vouchers (CCVs), salary sacrifice and maternity leave, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have confirmed that if CCVs are provided under an employment contract, outside the scope of a salary sacrifice scheme, then the vouchers must continue to be provided during maternity leave and other periods of family leave (other than unpaid parental leave). (See page 10 of Issue 62 of HMRC’s October Employer Bulletin .) In the Peninsula case, the employment contract said that an employee on maternity leave would not continue to receive CCVs. The judgment is only of direct relevance in dealing with similar contractual exclusions. (Source: http://bit.ly/2dN4nvy) Income contingent student loans ● Repayment threshold – Regulations provide that the annual repayment threshold for student loans will be increased annually from 6 April 2012 in line with the retail prices index (RPI). This means that the threshold for employees with Plan 1 (pre-2012) loans will increase by 1.6% to £17,775 from 6 April 2017. ● Consultations – Two consultations have recently been published, seeking views on the details of proposals for loans for: ❍ undergraduate part-time study, which will not be available until academic year 2018–19 (http://bit.ly/2fRpOMn)
Diary dates Last day of tax month 8
5 December 6 December
First day of tax month 9
Last day for submitting a real time information (RTI) employer payment summary (EPS) to apply to tax month 8
19 December
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: 56–69, 9A–9Z, U1–U9, V1–V9, W1–W9, UA–UZ, VA–VZ, WA–WZ
22 December
1 January
5 January
Last day of tax month 9
6 January
First day of tax month 10
Last day for submitting a RTI EPS to apply to tax month 9
19 January
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 Deadline for submitting letter to HMRC with details of an employer-financed retirement benefits scheme that came into operation during the tax year Automatic enrolment staging date for employers with fewer than thirty employees with the last two characters in their PAYE reference number: 70–83, X1–X9, Y1–Y9, XA–XZ, YA–YZ
22 January
31 January
1 February
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | December 2016/January 2017 | Issue 26 22
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