MEMBERSHIP INSIGHT
On your behalf
Policy team update
Diana Bruce MCIPPdip, CIPP senior policy liaison officer, provides an update about legislation, some CIPP polls and the CWG2 guide
General election We normally include a consultation update in On Your Behalf, but the announcement of a snap election to be held on 8 June 2017 has delayed consultation proceedings somewhat. On 21 April, the government went into the pre-election period known as ‘purdah’ and during this time only essential government business is meant to take place so expected publications are also delayed. The government’s own guidance says that in a period of purdah “decisions on matters of policy on which a new government might be expected to want the opportunity to take a different view from the present government should be postponed until after the election, provided that such postponement would not be detrimental to the national interest or wasteful of public money”. We have already seen the impact of purdah through the dramatic shortening of what would have been the longest Finance Bill in history. The Bill, which originally stood at 762 pages, has been reduced to approximately 140; the committee stage debate was limited to four hours, and all Treasury Select
Committee evidence sessions were cancelled. As a result, some changes affecting the taxation of benefits from employment, which were to have taken effect this tax year, were removed: ● the time limit for making good ● ultra-low emission vehicles ● employer-provided pensions advice ...changes affecting the taxation of benefits from employment, which were to have taken effect this tax year, were removed... ● termination payments, and ● PAYE settlement agreements. Clauses dropped included those on making tax digital and penalties for enablers of defeated tax avoidance schemes. At the time of writing, party manifestos had not yet been published but it is highly likely that the general election will bring more changes. The prime minister has refused to confirm whether or not previous manifesto pledges not to raise tax or National Insurance will be retained, and the Labour party manifesto is expected to include a pledge to increase taxes. We shall have to wait until after the general election to find out just which clauses and schedules will be resumed
in the Finance Bill. And, once a new government has been formed, the complexity of the Brexit negotiations will recommence. CIPP quick polls ● Brexit negotiations – Through the second half of April and first half of May we ran a poll on our website asking if you were optimistic about the prime minister having the legal power to start Brexit negotiations. The snap election has of course been announced since then and is well under way while you are reading this; however, the responses to this question showed that 43% were confident, 47% were not and 10% were indifferent to the whole process. 936 people responded to the poll in total. ● Real time information (RTI) reconciliation – One of our members was interested to know whether other agents were having issues with full payment submission (FPS) values not reconciling with payments to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). We asked through our poll, “Do you currently have RTI issues where FPS values do not balance with what is being paid to HMRC?”. We received 388 responses in total: ● 61% said yes, they currently have issues ● 31% said they did not, and ● the remaining 8% said they did have issues but they have now been resolved. Of course, what we do have to bear in mind with these results, and any of our poll results, is that it is only a snapshot in
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | June 2017 | Issue 31 4
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