Copyright © 2024 Thesaurus Software Ltd T/A Bright Software Group.
3 Shortlands, Hammersmith, London, W6 8DA
[email protected] 0345 9390019Feb 2014
20
0800 904 7900
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) appreciate that some individuals and businesses may find it difficult to meet their tax obligations due to the severe floods.
A new helpline has been set up to support those affected with fast, practical help and advice on tax matters such as offering time to pay tax debts for those affected by flooding.
The helpline is: 0800 904 7900. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, Saturday and Sunday 8.00 am to 4.00 pm
Jan 2014
8
This message is to advise employers, agents and payroll providers of a significant change to Employer Payment booklets and letters.
The changes will affect the following documents:
These documents will no longer carry the name, address or phone details of the issuing office. This will apply for:
Each individual document gives guidance on making payments.
The pay slips within the booklet or attached to the P30B Annual letter contain addressed reply envelopes for sending the payment in the post.
The Paying PAYE electronically letter explains how to pay by electronic methods and carries the necessary details and information for making payment.
Nov 2013
9
10% of 1.1m people affected by High Income Child Benefit Charge have still not contacted HMRC and could face losing the benefit and receive penalties.
Parents on individual salaries of £50,000 or higher were required to either opt out of receiving Child Benefit or register for Self Assessment by the October 5th deadline, in order to avoid financial penalties. Families in which parents each earn less than £50,000 are likely to continue to receive child benefit without having to pay the money back.
Penalties will be raised on a case by case basis and depending on the circumstance, the penalty could be reduced to zero, however tax would still be applicable.
It must also be noted that eligibility for child benefit depends not just on earnings but on "adjusted net income". This includes all taxable net income, including rental income and investments. bonuses and benefits in kind.
Oct 2013
31
From 2014 every business, Charity and CASCs (Charities and Community Amateur Sport Clubs) will be entitled to an annual “employment allowance” of £2000 to reduce their liability for Class I secondary NICs.
It is expected that up to 1.25 million employers will benefit, with over 90 per cent of the benefit going to small businesses with fewer than 250 employees and it is envisaged that on average, employers with fewer than ten employees will see their employer NICs bill reduced by 80%.
To simply matters HMRC will introduce a new tick box on EPS referring to the employment allowance in the form of a “yes/no” indicator.
To claim the allowance, the employer will have to signify his intention to claim by completing the yes/no indicator just once. The employer will then offset the allowance against each monthly Class 1 secondary NICs payment that is due to be made to HMRC until the allowance is fully claimed or the tax year ends.
This Employment Allowance will apply per employer regardless of how many PAYE schemes that employer chooses to operate.
Oct 2013
21
From this week HMRC will start to send four types of new messages to employers to help them keep their PAYE up-to-date.
These messages will take two formats:
1. The first three are generic electronic messages to warn the employer that their PAYE submissions and payments appear to have fallen into arrears.
2. The fourth one will be a letter, telling an employer that HMRC are cancelling a PAYE scheme that has been inactive for 120 days.
The electronic messages are not penalty notices and therefore an employer should not appeal against them. These messages do not replace the existing compliance communications, which will continue as now.
The aim of these messages is to help employers comply with their PAYE obligations and in particular get their businesses to submit and pay their PAYE to HMRC on time. This will help them get ready for 6 April 2014 when in-year penalties for late reporting and late payment will replace the current end-of-year PAYE penalties. HMRC wants to receive payments and returns on time; it does not want to charge penalties.
The messages warn that the employer may incur penalties in future, even if they have done nothing wrong for 2013-14 (for example if they are a smaller employer taking advantage of the current relaxation for ‘on or before’ reporting). If this is the case the employer does not need to contact HMRC but they should be preparing for 2014-15.
HMRC will update the wording of these messages in April 2014.
Oct 2013
14
Where any of these conditions apply your employer scheme will be cancelled and a letter issued to your business address to advise you of the action taken. Once the scheme has been cancelled you will not be able to submit any PAYE submissions in Real Time. If your scheme should not have been cancelled the letter covers who you should contact in HMRC to request that your scheme is reopened.
Aug 2013
14
HMRC has published a message on their website regarding RTI reconciliation issues.
"We have received feedback that some PAYE schemes have experienced difficulties in reconciling the difference between:
· the tax we say is due, and
· the tax they think is due
We have set up a dedicated team to identify the cause of these discrepancies.
The team is working with a number of PAYE schemes to work through their examples to examine what is causing these discrepancies, and then to resolve them.
This will also enable us to:· understand the issue in greater depth, and · take the steps necessary to prevent them arising in the first place."
Aug 2013
8
Please use the following points as a checklist to ensure that you have covered all aspects before sending in your company’s CIS repayment claim to HMRC. These are the top issues that are likely to affect how quickly we can process the claim.
Please send your claims to:
PAYE Employer Office
Room BP4009
Park View
NEWCASTLE
NE98 1ZZ
1. Ensure the company’s Agent is authorized specifically for PAYE to act on its behalf for CIS repayments. Form 64-8 is used for this purpose and can be downloaded from the HMRC website here. Please send it to:
HM Revenue & Customs Central Agent Authorisation Team Longbenton Newcastle upon Tyne NE98 1ZZ
Further information on authorization can be found here.
2. Double-check that the Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) and the company subcontractor’s name are correct on all documents.
3. Check that all the company’s Payment and Deduction Statements that HMRC have requested to process the claim are sent and that they are for the correct period (the tax year runs from 6 April in one year to 5 April the following year).
4. If the company was incorporated during the year, please ensure that its claim for repayment is only for deductions taken from the company’s payments and not any for periods before incorporation.
5. Check that the CIS deductions taken from the company’s subcontractors are correct and have been reported correctly on the monthly returns.
6. Check that the company has no outstanding returns (CIS300) in its capacity as a contractor within CIS.
7. Ensure that form P35 - or the final Employer Payment Summary (EPS) under Real Time Information (RTI), showing CIS deductions taken from the company’s payments, has already been submitted.
8. Submit any information requested within the timescale specified by HMRC, such as following receipt of a ‘CIS suffered letter’ and that you have included everything that HMRC has requested.
9. Where there are overpayments that do not relate to CIS, please verify how these have arisen by providing supporting documentary evidence to HMRC along with the company’s claim for repayment.
10. Where the company has ceased trading, please remember to send in all outstanding returns for the subcontractors.
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Jul 2013
30
Further to our Blog of 22nd July – HMRC have now revised the message they issued recently about the need for accurate reporting of hours worked.
The original message suggested that employers should record the actual hours worked by employees, however this has now been clarified to indicate that it is the number of hours normally worked. HMRC go on to explain that option D should only be selected if the employee does not have a regular pattern of employment or the payment relates to an occupational pension or annuity. Otherwise, hours worked should be recorded as follows:
A Up to 15.99 hours
B 16 to 29.99 hours
C 30 hours or more
If you have selected 'D other' in earlier submissions but should instead have selected one of the other options, you do not need to resubmit an earlier Full Payment Submission (FPS). Instead, please ensure that you report the correct hours on your next FPS.
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Jul 2013
25
Implementing the pension auto enrolment takes about nine months to one year, so it is important to start preparing as soon as possible. It is a statutory process and can not be ignored. There are key staging dates that an employer needs to be aware of (the staging date is when an employer has to start auto enrolling their employees) although it is possible to implement pension auto enrolment before the planned staging date. The employer needs to nominate a contact within the company who will be responsible for implementing the process. Working backward from the staging date the plan should incorporate sufficient time to complete the required processes such as those detailed below as well as developing admin procedures and setting up payroll.
Analyse the existing pension scheme
An existing pension scheme must meet the eligibility laid down by the Pensions Regulator. If no pension scheme is in place then the government NEST scheme may be implemented which has no set up charges.
Assess your workforce
Your workforce should be categorised into eligible jobholders, non-eligible job holders and entitled workers. Eligible jobholders will have to be automatically enrolled. They are aged between 22 and state pension age, have qualifying earnings that trigger automatic enrolment. Non-eligible jobholders are aged between 16-21 or state pension age and 74 and have qualifying earnings that trigger automatic enrolment. Entitled workers have the right to join the pension scheme but do not have qualifying earnings aged between 16 and 74. This should be an annual process once auto enrolment has been implemented.
Communicate with your workforce
Information about pension auto enrolment must be provided to the workers by you the employer in writing. This should preferably be by template letter. You can also decide to provide information sessions to your workforce so they can have their questions answered or you could develop an information booklet (which could be given out during an induction process to new starters).
Inform the Pension Regulator and keep records
You must keep certain records in support of your employer duties that will enable you to demonstrate your on going compliance and you should build these record-keeping requirements into your existing processes. The scheme should be registered with the Pensions Regulator.
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Copyright © 2024 Thesaurus Software Ltd T/A Bright Software Group.
3 Shortlands, Hammersmith, London, W6 8DA
[email protected] 0345 9390019