BrightPay Customer Survey 2016 - the results are in!!!

This June our annual customer survey was sent out to more than 20,000 customers and the results are in. Customer feedback is fundamental to the success of BrightPay. The survey was designed to give us an insight into what we can do to continuously improve our product for the benefit of our growing customer base. It is important to understand and value what our customers think so we can provide a superior customer experience. In today’s competitive world, we believe we can intertwine our product development with our customer feedback to offer customers a superior experience.

BrightPay has a customer satisfaction rate of 99% which is a slight improvement on last year’s rate of 98.5%. Our customer service and support team performed well receiving a 99% customer satisfaction rate which was also an improvement on last year. 99.5% of customers agree that our customer support has improved in the last year, while 94% agree that BrightPay has improved in the last year. Customers described BrightPay as reliable, high quality, useful, unique and good value for money. 98% believe BrightPay is an innovative product. 98% of customers rate BrightPay’s value for money as excellent or above average.

National Insurance Numbers - KC Prefix

Recently new National Insurance Numbers have been issued with the prefix of KC by Jobcentre Plus (on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions). These National Insurance numbers are valid. Unfortunately there have been issues with these NINOs with the KC prefix as HMRC has not included the KC prefix as a valid prefix on their list of valid prefixes to software developers. So currently HMRC's systems do not recognise the prefix KC and most payroll softwares will not recognise it either. You may not be able to enter the National Insurance number into your payroll software as it may not be recognised and even if you can your Full Payment Submission may be rejected by HMRC due to the prefix not being recognised by HMRC.

HMRC have issued a message regarding the problem "We are aware that a small number of National Insurance numbers with prefix 'KC' were issued recently and that these are causing some problems for our customers."

If you have an employee with a NINO with a KC prefix you should take the following steps when entering their details in your payroll software for the moment, as your RTI returns will successfully submit to HMRC:

• Do not enter the NINO for the employee - this field should be left empty

• The employee's address has to be entered, the first two lines minimum requirement

• You do not need to request a new NINO as the NINO with the KC prefix is valid.

Per HMRC " We are working hard to resolve this issue quickly and will provide more information shortly"

Posted byDebbie ClarkeinHMRCPayroll Software

P11D & P11D(b) - Deadline for filing 6th July 2016

If you’re an employer and provide expenses or benefits to employees or directors, you may need to tell HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and pay tax and National Insurance on them. The means of reporting these details to HMRC is on a P11D or P9D form and P11D(b) form.The P11D is a statutory form required by HMRC from UK based employers detailing the cash equivalents of benefits and expenses that they have provided during the tax year to their directors, and employees earning at the rate of more than £8,500 per year (inclusive of any BIK amount). Your P11D(b) tells HMRC how much Class 1A National Insurance you need to pay on all the expenses and benefits you’ve provided.

Examples of expenses and benefits include:

• company cars

• health insurance

• travel and entertainment expenses

• childcare

The deadline for reporting these details to HMRC for the tax year 2015-16 is before the 7th July 2016, so have to be received by HMRC on or before the 6th July 2016. Recent communication from HMRC's Software Developer Support Team stressed that - “Where employers fail to submit their P11D and P11D (b) returns employees may have incorrect tax codes (and tax bills) and any delays beyond 19 July might result in the employer being charged a penalty.” The charge per month is £100 for every 50 or part-batch of 50 employees provided with benefits. Per the HMRC’s CWG5 booklet Class 1A National Insurance Contributions on Benefits in Kind the filing date for the return is the 6th of July but if the return is late the penalties start to be calculated but it will only be enforced if the returns are still outstanding at 19th July. This “grace period” does not apply to the employer’s obligation to ensure that employees employed on 5 April receive their P11D / P9D by 6 July. So:

• Copy to HMRC – by 19 July at the latest

• Copy to employees – by 6 July

BrightPay can produce a P11D for sending to HMRC after year end which includes your Class 1A NICs declaration and details of the expenses and benefits provided including cash equivalents.

Posted byDebbie ClarkeinPayroll Software