May 2013
16
In response to some National Insurance number Verification Requests (NVRs) and Full Payment Submissions (FPS) with missing or incorrect National Insurance numbers, HM Revenue & Customs has issued a number of National Insurance numbers without the final letter (A, B, C or D) of the number.
The issue of National Insurance numbers is currently on hold whilst HMRC investigate this.
Update by HMRC in June 2013:-
"Last month we temporarily suspended the issue of National Insurance numbers while we investigated why some were being sent out without the final letter (A, B, C or D) of the number. This has been resolved and we are issuing National Insurance numbers again."
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
May 2013
7
Your 2012-13 Employer Annual Return is due by 19 May 2013. Send it as soon as possible to avoid a late filing penalty.
Click here for further details.
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Apr 2013
22
HMRC has been forced to issue a clarification about national insurance number verification requests after being contacted by worried employers trying to meet the Real Time Information (RTI) requirements.
The employers have been receiving rejections in response to their requests. This, says HMRC, is correct. They are being rejected because the employers are sending their requests in before they have made their first full payment submission (FPS).
“You cannot send a national insurance number verification request (NVR) until you have started to send PAYE information in real time,” HMRC advises. “Wait two weeks after sending your first FPS before sending an NVR.”
It points employers to its guidance, Making Sure You Use the Correct National Insurance Number
HMRC also says that it has been receiving phone calls from employees trying to find out what their NI number is after being told by their employer that they must have one for when the employer submits the RTI returns.
Although HMRC does want employers to provide correct NI numbers in their PAYE submissions, it stresses that there will be occasions when an NI number is not available. For example, the employee will not have been allocated one if they are under 16 years old.
Again, it points employers towards the NI guidance to make it clear that they should leave the NI number field blank and not be tempted to fill it in with a dummy or incorrect number.
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Apr 2013
17
The rate for 18 to 20-year-olds will rise by 5p to £5.03, and by 4p to £3.72 for 16 and 17-year-olds.
Ministers said they had rejected a recommendation from the Low Pay Commission that the rate for apprentices should be frozen, announcing a 3p an increase to £2.68 an hour.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "The independent Low Pay Commission plays a crucial role in advising the Government when setting the national minimum wage every year. It balances wages of low paid workers against employment prospects if the rate was set too high.
"We are accepting its recommendations for the adult and youth rate increases, which I am confident strikes this balance. However, there is worrying evidence that a significant number of employers are not paying apprentices the relevant minimum wage rate.
"Apprenticeships are at the heart of our goal to support a stronger economy, and so it is important to continue to make them attractive to young people.
"Therefore, I am not taking forward the LPC's recommendation to freeze the apprenticeship rate due to non-compliance, but instead am raising it in line with the youth rates. We are working on a series of tough new measures to ensure we tackle non-compliance issues across the board."
Tim Thomas of the manufacturers' organisation the EEF, commented: "Today's announcement strikes a delicate balance between the need for an element of pay progression and the limitations employers face in accommodating pay rises.
"The modest increase in the apprenticeship rate is unlikely to negatively affect apprenticeship recruitment and of much greater importance is the raising of apprenticeships standards, better information and advice to students and ensuring that apprenticeships are truly employer-led and employer-driven."
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Boosting the incomes of the low paid goes straight into the economy and wage-led growth must be part of the recovery so we would have liked to have seen minimum wage rates go up further today, even if the Government has rightly rejected calls for a freeze.
"But we are pleased that ministers have increased the apprenticeship rate. This sends a positive signal about the importance of apprentices.
"We will continue to press ministers for more action to ensure the minimum wage is properly enforced - particularly for apprentices where there is considerable evidence that many miss out. It is time to get tough with wage-cheat employers who break this law.
"We will continue to urge the many employers who can afford it to implement a full living wage for their staff."
The rate for 18 to 20-year-olds will rise by 5p to £5.03, and by 4p to £3.72 for 16 and 17-year-olds.
Ministers said they had rejected a recommendation from the Low Pay Commission that the rate for apprentices should be frozen, announcing a 3p an increase to £2.68 an hour.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "The independent Low Pay Commission plays a crucial role in advising the Government when setting the national minimum wage every year. It balances wages of low paid workers against employment prospects if the rate was set too high.
"We are accepting its recommendations for the adult and youth rate increases, which I am confident strikes this balance. However, there is worrying evidence that a significant number of employers are not paying apprentices the relevant minimum wage rate.
"Apprenticeships are at the heart of our goal to support a stronger economy, and so it is important to continue to make them attractive to young people.
"Therefore, I am not taking forward the LPC's recommendation to freeze the apprenticeship rate due to non-compliance, but instead am raising it in line with the youth rates. We are working on a series of tough new measures to ensure we tackle non-compliance issues across the board."
Tim Thomas of the manufacturers' organisation the EEF, commented: "Today's announcement strikes a delicate balance between the need for an element of pay progression and the limitations employers face in accommodating pay rises.
"The modest increase in the apprenticeship rate is unlikely to negatively affect apprenticeship recruitment and of much greater importance is the raising of apprenticeships standards, better information and advice to students and ensuring that apprenticeships are truly employer-led and employer-driven."
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Boosting the incomes of the low paid goes straight into the economy and wage-led growth must be part of the recovery so we would have liked to have seen minimum wage rates go up further today, even if the Government has rightly rejected calls for a freeze.
"But we are pleased that ministers have increased the apprenticeship rate. This sends a positive signal about the importance of apprentices.
"We will continue to press ministers for more action to ensure the minimum wage is properly enforced - particularly for apprentices where there is considerable evidence that many miss out. It is time to get tough with wage-cheat employers who break this law.
"We will continue to urge the many employers who can afford it to implement a full living wage for their staff."
The rate for 18 to 20-year-olds will rise by 5p to £5.03, and by 4p to £3.72 for 16 and 17-year-olds.
Ministers said they had rejected a recommendation from the Low Pay Commission that the rate for apprentices should be frozen, announcing a 3p an increase to £2.68 an hour.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "The independent Low Pay Commission plays a crucial role in advising the Government when setting the national minimum wage every year. It balances wages of low paid workers against employment prospects if the rate was set too high.
"We are accepting its recommendations for the adult and youth rate increases, which I am confident strikes this balance. However, there is worrying evidence that a significant number of employers are not paying apprentices the relevant minimum wage rate.
"Apprenticeships are at the heart of our goal to support a stronger economy, and so it is important to continue to make them attractive to young people.
"Therefore, I am not taking forward the LPC's recommendation to freeze the apprenticeship rate due to non-compliance, but instead am raising it in line with the youth rates. We are working on a series of tough new measures to ensure we tackle non-compliance issues across the board."
Tim Thomas of the manufacturers' organisation the EEF, commented: "Today's announcement strikes a delicate balance between the need for an element of pay progression and the limitations employers face in accommodating pay rises.
"The modest increase in the apprenticeship rate is unlikely to negatively affect apprenticeship recruitment and of much greater importance is the raising of apprenticeships standards, better information and advice to students and ensuring that apprenticeships are truly employer-led and employer-driven."
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Boosting the incomes of the low paid goes straight into the economy and wage-led growth must be part of the recovery so we would have liked to have seen minimum wage rates go up further today, even if the Government has rightly rejected calls for a freeze.
"But we are pleased that ministers have increased the apprenticeship rate. This sends a positive signal about the importance of apprentices.
"We will continue to press ministers for more action to ensure the minimum wage is properly enforced - particularly for apprentices where there is considerable evidence that many miss out. It is time to get tough with wage-cheat employers who break this law.
"We will continue to urge the many employers who can afford it to implement a full living wage for their staff."
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Apr 2013
4
HMRC has amended its guidance on the starter process to help increase accuracy for individuals with a P45 and more than one job. In such cases, instead of selecting statement C and operating code BR, the employer should select statement B and operate the tax code on the P45 – unless the tax code on the P45 is BR, 0T or D prefix – in which case statement C would still apply.
Individuals without a P45 or with an old P45 will continue to complete the starter declaration to confirm their employment situation. The full guidance on the starter process will be updated and available from 6 April 2013 here.
Please be aware the guidance linked above will not be updated to reflect this change until 6 April 2013. HMRC acknowledges that the starter process guidance has gone through several iterations and for 2013-14 says it will accept if an employer’s payroll does not follow this new process.
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Apr 2013
3
We released BrightPay 13/14 (version 13.0) on 19th March, 2013. It has since been downloaded nearly 2000 times, and we've received some great feedback. Big thanks to all our customers!
This morning, we released our first maintenance release, version 13.1. This is an important update which contains several minor new features, improvements and bug fixes. When you launch BrightPay, it will check for and offer to download this update automatically. Alternatively, click Check for Updates in the Help menu. To download the upgrade manually, click here.
So, as the title of this blog posts asks ... What's New?
First and foremost, the most obvious new feature in BrightPay 2013/14 is full, HMRC recognised support for RTI. We believe that we have the best RTI implementation on the market. We've already covered RTI support in previous blog entries (e.g. here, here and here), so won't go into the same detail now. But here are a few tips which you may not have already picked up:
Since the beginning, of all the work that has gone into creating BrightPay, the most by far has been in the design of the user interface (UI). BrightPay 2013/14 is our best yet. We refined how it looks and feels, making managing your payroll an even better, easier experience. Some of the highlights:
The addition of RTI has over-shadowed some of the other new features and improvements in BrightPay 2013/14. But that doesn't make them any less important. The majority of these are in response to customer feedback and requests, so remember, if there's something that you would like to see in BrightPay, don't hesitate to get in touch.
This list covers all the important updates. There are many more minor ones, as well as 'under the hood' performance and reliability improvements.
And we're not done yet! We'll continue to bring you new features during the course of the 2013/14 tax year. Keep an eye on this blog for details.
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Mar 2013
19
We are delighted to announce that BrightPay 13/14 has obtained full HMRC recognition for RTI submissions and is now available to download.
From 6th April, all payments to employees must be reported to HMRC using RTI. Although we have worked hard to make your RTI experience with BrightPay as painless as possible, there are a few things you need to do before your first 13/14 payroll run to ensure that it all runs smoothly.
Make sure that all employees are included in your payroll before you send your first RTI submission.
It is important that you understand how BrightPay handles Full Payment Submissions (FPS) and in particular your first FPS which acts as an alignment submission. This understanding is best served by a couple of examples.
Example 1
You process your first week's payroll before the start of the 13/14 tax year, just to have it ready to go. You will notice after finalising the first week in BrightPay that an FPS has been automatically prepared for you and is awaiting submission. If your first payday is Thursday 11th April, then the FPS must be submitted on or before 11th April. (HMRC will not accept an RTI submission prior to 6th April).
One of the really nice things about BrightPay is that until an RTI submission is sent, it will be automatically updated with any changes you make to employer, employee or payment details. Let's say you only add your monthly paid employees in BrightPay after already finalising your first week. In this case, the pending first FPS will be automatically updated to include the details for the monthly employees. Similarly, if you discover that the NINO for one of your employees is incorrect, you can simply correct the employee record and the pending FPS will be automatically updated with the correct NINO. You do not have to process the payroll again or prepare the FPS again for these changes to be made.
Example 2
You process your first week's payroll before the start of the 13/14 tax year, just to have it ready to go. An FPS is automatically prepared and is awaiting submission. You then notice that you forgot to include overtime and so you re-open the payslips for all or some of your employees and finalise them again. In this case, the pending FPS will be automatically updated with the adjustments that you made.
The same automatic updating applies to other RTI submission types as well (EAS, NVR and EPS). Once they are created and until they are sent, any changes you make to employer or employee information will be automatically applied.
HMRC have published a useful one page leaflet entitled "Reporting and paying HMRC in real time: getting it right". Download it here.
We will be delighted to help you with any questions you may have. You can call us on 0845 3004304.
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Mar 2013
5
BrightPay obtains HMRC Recognition for 2013/14 - see HMRC listing
The following video shows just how easy RTI is when using BrightPay.
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Feb 2013
27
In a previous article we stated the following in relation to the new contracted hours worked field on the FPS:
"For employees who are paid using an hourly rate only, BrightPay will select the correct option automatically."
This is incorrect. This is the contracted hours that an employee will be expected to work in a week, not the hours actually worked in a week. So for all employees, you will need to choose the appropriate option (BrightPay, by default, will use (c) 30 hours or more per week).
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.
Feb 2013
6
The 2013/14 tax year is almost here, and with it, Real Time Information (RTI). From 6th April 2013, employers will report their payroll information to HMRC in real time, on or before every payday.
BrightPay 2013/14, with full RTI support, will be available soon. Over the past few months, we have been asked several questions about RTI, and how it will work in BrightPay. Below are some of the common questions and answers.
Top Points to Remember
BrightPay 2013/14 will be released on Tuesday, 19th March, 2013.
On or after 6th April 2013. HMRC will not accept any RTI submissions sent before 6th April. This will not stop you from processing your payroll using BrightPay. If you process payroll before 6th April, BrightPay will prepare and save any required RTI submissions. From 6th April, you will be then able to send them.
Your first RTI submission will be due on or before your first payday in the 2013/14 tax year.
If you have 250 employees or more, your first submission must be an Employee Alignment Submission (EAS), which simply contains the details of all your employees, allowing HMRC to align their records with yours. BrightPay will detect if you have 250 or more employees, and guide you through submitting an EAS.
If you have less than 250 employees, you do not need to send an EAS (although you still can if you choose to). Instead, HMRC will align their records with yours when you send your first Full Payment Submission (FPS). An FPS is sent on or before each payday, and informs HMRC about the payments and deductions for each employee. BrightPay automatically prepares an FPS each time you finalise one or more payslips. If you did not send an EAS, BrightPay will include all the necessary alignment details in your first FPS, which includes a listing of all your employees, whether they were paid in the first pay period or not.
So, before you send your first RTI submission (be it an EAS or first FPS), it is very important that you first ensure all individuals in your employment are included in BrightPay. This includes temporary and casual workers, as well as employees paid below the LEL (Lower Earnings Limit) who, though they may have no deductions, now need to be accounted for through the payroll.
Each time you pay your employees, you will send a Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC. BrightPay will prepare an FPS each time you finalise one or more payslips.
An FPS contains:
If no employees are paid on a particular payday, an FPS is not required. Instead, BrightPay will notify HMRC of this in your next Employer Payment Summary (EPS) submission (which is otherwise used to notify HMRC of reductions you are entitled to make to the totals already submitted on FPS submissions e.g. statutory parenting pay).
There are a few new pieces of information that were not previously included in P45, P46, P35 or P14 submissions:
You've just sent an FPS, only to realise that you forgot to include overtime! This, and other accidents which affect the amounts reported on an FPS, could happen to you, and will most certainly happen to many other employers.
HMRC are aware of this possibility, and are flexible in how you handle it. You can re-send the FPS with correct figures, or you can continue anyway, and in the next FPS the year to date figures will be reconciled. BrightPay will cater for either approach.
If, after 19th April 2014, you realise that the information on your final FPS was incorrect, BrightPay will let you submit an Earlier Year Update (EYU) submission to make the adjustments as required.
No. BrightPay will automatically include starter and leaver details in relevant FPS submissions. With RTI, HMRC will already have the details of an employee's previous employment, and so there is now much less information about an employee's previous employment that you need to record in BrightPay.
But there is an important change to the process of recording an employee's start or leave date in BrightPay. Before RTI, a P45 Part 3 or P46 could be sent to HMRC up to 30 days after the employee started. Similarly, a P45 could be sent up to 30 days after an employee left. It was common (and perfectly acceptable) that an employer would notify HMRC only after making a first or final payment. But with RTI, you need to ensure that the start/leave date is set before sending the first or final FPS. To help ensure that you do this, BrightPay now allows you to confirm starter/leaver details when finalising payslips.
You will, however, still be required to provide a P45 copy to your employee when they leave, for their own records. BrightPay will still allow you to print this (or export it to PDF) as before.
The P35 and P14 are no longer applicable. Your final FPS (and/or EPS) will contain the end of year declarations that were previously included on the P35, as well as the final payment figures for each employee that were previously included on P14 forms.
For the most part, it went well, and was a very worthwhile exercise. Lots of issues were ironed out on both sides, ensuring that RTI in 2013/14 is as smooth as possible for the rest of us!
To help ensure you have the correct details for each of your employees before the 2013/14 tax year begins, we have created a Request Form that you can have your employees complete and return to you.
One of the main lessons learnt by employers was that information for each employee (name, address, date of birth, NINO, gender) should be accurate and up to date from the very start of the tax year. If it's not, or if you change employee information mid-year, HMRC may not be able to align their records with yours, creating big headaches for you and your affected employee(s).
To help resolve this problem in 12/13, HMRC introduced a Payroll ID for each employee, which they suggested should be the employee's Works Number. But Works Numbers can change. And so some difficulties were faced when HMRC incorrectly inferred a change in Works Number to be a new employment. In 13/14, BrightPay, along with many other software providers, will leave the Works Number alone, and automatically assign a unique Payroll ID for each employment.
No.
With RTI, payroll is changing, but our simple pricing model and free support is not. Rest assured that once you have purchased a 2013/14 BrightPay licence, that's it.
BrightPay received full recognition in 2012/13, and we are in the process of being tested for 2013/14 recognition. HMRC have advised us that there may be delays in processing applications for 2013/14 recognition. Keep an eye on our website for updates.
If you have any more questions, please call or email us. We are confident that RTI will be easy with BrightPay 13/14
Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.