ONLINE LEARNING
COMPLIANCE
INTRODUCTION TO PAYROLL
NIC rates for directors and class 1A / class 1B. Over recent years, software has also needed to be readied for apprentices, under 21’s, veterans and freeports. Innovation zones are an additional consideration for the future. The uplift to national minimum wage (NMW) rates This also includes the national living wage. Recent increases have been significant, and consequently employers may have been forced to review benefit arrangements via salary sacrifice. This is because more workers and employees are being moved into a position of not being able to enter such arrangements to avoid NMW breaches. There’s also the announcement of the real living wage voluntary scheme – a scheme which an increasing number of employers are signing up for. Increases or changes to statutory payments covering sickness and parental leave The statutory sick pay rate uplift occurs annually on 6 April. However, the statutory parental pay changes, which operate in weeks or part weeks, uplift on the first Sunday falling in April. Student loan plan types are ever increasing, and the threshold for each plan type tends to be revealed in grouping Normally announced in the summer, some of the changes have been revealed later in the cycle timetable of development, and in parts. There’s currently plan 1, plan 2, postgraduate and plan 4 loan types, and in a few years’ time we will see the added plan type 5, another annual announcement to be aware of. Most of these are communicated to software developers by HMRC’s SDST. An area that has recently seen tardy announcements regarding change are the pension automatic enrolment (AE) thresholds. 2022 saw the separation of the lower earnings threshold from the lower earnings limit for NICs, which will have caught some employers out. In 2022, the announcement was late, and for many, too close to the wire. Of all the announcements, the pension AE thresholds are increasingly problematical. The other area of monitoring by
software developers for annual regular change are the devolved governments of Wales and Scotland. Wales has the power to vary the income tax rate, but so far has refrained. Scotland gained powers to not only adjust the rate, but also to adjust and introduce new levels of tax bands – which it has. The draft budget of each tends to be in December, with final confirmation being around February. Due to late changes in 2020, the Scottish tax changes were applied in May and backdated to 6th April. Many payroll professionals will remember the regular May 19th change point for spring budget announcements. HMRC’s SDST usually notifies changes to real time information rules just after summer. This outlines revisions to data validations and details any new items. For 2023, there was the intention of introducing new reporting fields for the health and social care levy; however, these requirements have now been cancelled. And then there are the implications of other statutory items which may impact payroll software. The Scottish Parliament triennially reviews diligences by introducing revised earnings arrestment tables. The rest of the UK revisions of attachment of earnings orders are more sporadic. With the cost-of-living crisis, Scotland are proposing an additional change for April 2023. The role of the software developer community So, the software developer community requires technology experts who understand payroll-related law and how to implement any changes into their payroll software solutions in a timely manner. Of course, change requires testing to ensure former calculations aren’t corrupted, and that new calculations are both compliant and correct. A useful tool which isn’t yet available to the profession is a Tardis, although many do have a well-polished crystal ball! The BCS PSG provides regular updates to its membership and the payroll industry, and takes a lead in consultative representation. It has representatives in the HMRC representative steering body group, the employer payment group and many others. In recent years, the government has progressed a more active involvement of trusted industry representatives to aid in the successful implementation of payroll change. We wish the profession a successful and happy new tax year. n
Duration Six consecutive half days online
The introduction to payroll course gives detailed training on the fundamental elements of payroll processing with practical examples, such as calculating
income tax, National Insurance contributions (NICs) and various deductions from pay.
Visit cipp.org.uk/training to book your place
Member price: £1,047 + VAT Non-member price: £1,347 + VAT
Scan to book
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 87 | February 2023
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