notified as early as possible in order that software changes can be made in time for 6 April 2016.
In addition to the existing threshold, currently (£16,910) a new threshold (£21,000) will be introduced to the student loans repayment process to handle the collection of the new Higher Education loans (England and Wales only) and accommodate 24+ Advanced Learning loans (England only).
Loans taken out with the £16,910 threshold will be referred to as ‘Plan 1’ and those with the new £21,000 threshold will be referred to as ‘Plan 2’.
Student loan deductions will only be made on one plan type at any time and can change between plan types in-year.
Employers will need the capability to make sure they know which threshold should be applied from 6 April 2016 to make the student loan deductions for either Plan 1 or Plan 2 loans and to return the repayment information into HMRC as they do currently through their payroll submissions.
During the tax year 2015-2016 HMRC will send out three types of start notifications:
1. Existing start notifications for starts from 6 April 2015 2. New start notifications issued for starts from 6 April 2016 stating the borrower repayments should be based on Plan 1 3. New start notifications issued for starts from 6 April 2016 stating the borrower repayments should be based on Plan 2
Notifications stated in 2 and 3 will be issued in sufficient time to allow employers to start deductions from 6 April 2016.
Further information, guidance and updated specifications for the SL1 message will be issued nearer the time.
Student Loan Consultation minutes
7 July 2014
HMRC have published the minutes of the meeting of the Collection of Student Loans consultation forum held on 3rd June 2014. These include updates on real time information and other topics. The minutes include a question about employers who have not indicated in their final submission for 2013/14 that their return is complete. This question concerned a report that “10% of the returns due in April hadn’t ticked the submission to say that it was the final one. As a result it looked as if the tax year was incomplete. There has been no feedback on how the 10% will be treated; would they face penalties as they had not indicated that this was the final return? The Group were interested to know what the consequences would be; will a penalty be charged or will HMRC process the return as complete?”
HMRC have responded as follows:
“At the end of the tax year, when an employer submits their final RTI submission (FPS or EPS for the pay period) they must indicate that this is their ‘Final submission for the tax year’ and answer the end of year questions and declaration. Where employers don’t set this indicator and answer the end of year questions it will have a significant impact on some of our business processes. And employers have a statutory obligation to provide the details in
CIPP Policy News Journal
08/04/2015, Page 485 of 521
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker