Do you wear a uniform to work?

Uniform tax rebate is not yet widely known, yet it affects almost 43% of the British public. It is a rebate scheme introduced by the HMRC for people who wear a uniform or protective clothing to work. Under the rebate scheme, qualifying employees may be able to reclaim tax from the past four years.

To be able to claim the tax relief, ALL of the following must apply:

· You wear a recognisable uniform that shows you've got a certain job, like a branded T-shirt, nurse or police uniform.

· Your employer requires you to wear it while you're working.

· You have to purchase, clean, repair or replace it yourself. However, you can't claim if your employer washes your kit, provides facilities to do so (even if you don't use them) or pays you for doing this maintenance.

· You paid income tax in the year you are claiming for.

The amount of tax relief an employee can claim will depend on the industry. For tax year 2014/15, the standard flat rate expense allowance (FREA) for uniform maintenance is £60. Therefore basic rate taxpayers can claim £12 back and higher rate payers £24. Some occupations have more specific limits, often where specialist uniforms are required. A full list of occupations and their corresponding allowances can be viewed here.

Employees wishing to claim this tax relief for the first time can do so by filling in form P87 online, printing it out and posting to:

HM Revenue & Customs
Pay As You Earn
PO Box 1970
Liverpool
L75 1WX

Employees should allow five weeks for HMRC to process their claim, who will then confirm in writing how much you are entitled to.

Posted byVictoria ClarkeinHMRCPayroll

UK Minimum Wage changes from 1st October 2014

The minimum wage is rising today in the biggest increase since the 2008. The new national minimum wage rates from 1 October for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are as follows:

• £6.50 per hour for the adult rate - a 19p (3 per cent) increase

• £5.13 per hour for 18 to 20-year-olds - a 10p (2 per cent) increase

• £3.79 per hour for 16 to 17-year-olds - a 7p (2 per cent) increase

• £2.73 per hour for apprentices - a 5p (2 per cent) increase

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said the minimum wage was a “vital safety net” for low-paid workers. “As signs of a stronger economy start to emerge, we need to do more to make sure that the benefits of growth are shared fairly across the board,” he added.

Posted byVictoria ClarkeinPayroll

How to avoid late payment interest

HMRC have published important information on how to avoid late payment interest and what to expect if a 2014 to 2015 PAYE or CIS payment is late.

As previously announced, HMRC will now charge interest on any late PAYE and Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) payments. For employers that pay monthly, the first payment of 2014 to 2015 was due by 19th May (or by the 22nd May for employers who pay electronically).

To avoid an interest charge, employers should pay by the due date the difference between the following:

· what they report on their Full Payment Submission(s) (FPS), received by the 19th of the month following the end of the tax month it relates to, together with any CIS charges for that tax month.

· any deductions reported on an Employer Payment Submission (EPS), again received by the 19th of the month following the end of the tax month it relates to.

Making Corrections

If employers make a correction on an FPS that HMRC receives after the 19th of the month following the end of the tax month it relates to, the correction will be included in the following month’s charge. In these circumstances, the amount payable for the tax month is the amount actually reported by the 19th (rather than the corrected amount).

Interest Charges

HMRC will charge interest on all unpaid:

· PAYE tax, Class 1 National Insurance and Student Loan deductions, including specified charges (estimates HMRC makes in the absence of a PAYE submission)

· Construction Industry Scheme charges

· In-year late filing penalties, which start from October 2014

· In-year late payment penalties, which will be charged automatically from April 2015

HMRC will charge interest daily, from the date a payment is due and payable to the date it is paid in full. Employers will be able to see an estimate of the interest building up on their Business Tax Dashboard. HMRC’s At a glance: interest from 2014 to 2015 helpsheet provides further information on:

· The due dates of payment

· How in-year interest is calculated

· Interest on overpayments

· How HMRC will calculate interest on a charge that employers didn't agree with

· What an employer should do if they cannot pay

HMRC issues guidance on correcting RTI errors

HMRC have this week published information to help employers understand how to go about informing HMRC of errors on RTI returns for the tax year 2013/14. This includes a new flowchart (correcting 2013-14 PAYE submissions after 5 April 2014 (PDF 35K) ) which provides employers with a step-by-step guide to follow should any of the following scenarios arise after the 5th April 2014:

The employer wishes to correct amounts already sent on a Full Payment Submission:

· up to and including 19 April 2014 employers can make corrections by sending an Additional FPS for 2013-14. Employers can send more than one FPS to make corrections up to that date if needed. Employers are not required to send another Employer Payment Summary unless corrections are also needed to this.

· after 19 April 2014, employers must make any corrections to a 2013-14 FPS on an Earlier Year Update (EYU). Employers can send an EYU even if they haven't made a final FPS submission. If further changes are needed, employers can correct an EYU by sending HMRC another EYU with the corrected information.

The employer wishes to correct figures already submitted on an Employer Payment Summary (e.g. for the recovery of statutory payments):

· Employers can make corrections to an Employer EPS by sending another EPS to report the correct total year-to-date figures for all recovered payments within that tax year. Employers have up to six years from when they sent in their original EPS to do this.
 

Full guidance on the above can be found on HMRC’s website at correcting payroll errors - current year

Posted byVictoria ClarkeinPayroll SoftwareRTI