Mandatory Online Filing of Year-End Returns – Regulations to extend online filing requirements to small employers

• Recommend on Facebook
• 
• Share on Linkedin
• share via Reddit
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Print for later
• Tell a friend

The Regulations that require employers to file their P14 and P35 returns and their in-year PAYE forms online currently apply only to employers with 50 or more employees. Mandatory filing will also apply to “small” employers, i.e. those with fewer than 50 employees, from April 2010, in respect of P14 and P35 returns for the 2009/10 tax year.

HMRC has published for consultation the draft amendment regulations that will extend the mandatory filing of year-end returns to small employers.

Regulations 205 to 210C of the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 provide the current requirements for electronic communications between employers and HMRC. The draft Amendment Regulations make amendments to, and in some changes replace, these existing regulations. The key points from the draft regulations are as follows.

• The amendments do not apply to “small” employers for the 2009/10 tax year who cease paying PAYE tax during that tax year and submit their year-end P14 and P35 returns before 6 April 2010.
• Mandatory filing of P14 and P35 returns will not apply to
  • a member of a religious society whose beliefs are incompatible with the use of electronic communications, or a partnership or company where all of the partners or all of the directors and company secretary have those beliefs,
  • an employer authorised to use the simplified PAYE deduction scheme, or
  • a “care and support” employer , i.e. an individual who employs a person to provide domestic or personal services in the employer’s home, and
  • the services are provided to the employer or a member of the employer’s family,
  • the recipient of the services is physically or mentally disabled, or is elderly or infirm, and
  • it is the employer who delivers to annual returns and not someone acting on the employer’s behalf.
• The penalties set for “small” employers for not filing P14 and P35 returns online depend on the number of employees for whom particulars should have been included with the annual return:
  • for the 2009/10 tax year, the penalties are
    • 1 to 5 employees – £nil
    • 6 to 49 employees – £100
  • for the 2010/11 and subsequent tax years, the penalties are
    • 1 to 5 employees – £100
    • 6 to 49 employees – £300.

Equivalent changes are also proposed in draft Amendments Regulations to regulations 90M to 90P of the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001.

Further information:
Compulsory online filing for small employers PAYE and NICs: draft legislation

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 05:00 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.