Feb 2014
21
RTI Penalties delayed to 6th October 2014
HMRC director general personal tax, Ruth Owen, who holds responsibility for the RTI project, has announced “Penalties for late filing of RTI submissions were due to come in from April – that will now start from 6th October this year, so that gives employers through to October to bring everything up to date.
“In terms of automated late-payment penalties they were due to start in April of this year and recognising that people are still getting to understand their charges under RTI we’ve decided to start late payment penalties from 6th April 2015 – so a 12 month delay to those penalties.
“Interest will still apply, so anyone paying late payment interest – this will apply from April 2014, as has always been the case, so no change. We are not delaying interest.
“Also there are some businesses that have been using the concession for ‘on or before’ during this year for whom the concession will not apply from April, so if you are a small but not micro business you will now need to start reporting in real time."
Industry response
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) has been lobbying for a delay in the introduction of RTI penalties as reported here.
Its associate director of policy, research, and strategic visibility, Karen Thomson, said: “The CIPP is delighted the minister, David Gauke, and HMRC has listened to the concerns of the profession and welcomes the delays to the RTI penalty regime.
“This additional time will allow both employers and HMRC to iron out all the teething problems being experienced by employers, particularly around the payment reconciliation process without the fear of financial implications.”
And Paul Aplin, chairman of the ICAEW tax faculty technical committee, said: “I think it is absolutely essential that the penalties are delayed as there have been a number of issues including incorrect demands, difficulty in reconciling amounts and also not all employers are even on RTI now so we have not been through one complete cycle and until we have been through a complete cycle for all employers and until those issues with incorrect demands are sorted it is completely inappropriate to charge penalties.”
