Archive for March, 2010

The necessary statutory Orders have been made, replacing earlier draft Orders, to wind up the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA), the body responsible for designing and procuring the administration elements of the statutory pension scheme that will be available to employers in 2012, with effect from 5 July 2010 transfer the property, rights and liabilities [...]

The P35 Annual Return filed by employers has been redesigned on both the ROS Online and Offline applications, to enhance the appearance of this form and make it more user friendly.  The revised form design is consistent for both ROS Online and Offline applications. These changes will apply to P35 screens for the 2010 period [...]

At last a quieter week for news!  Most of the items in this newsletter relate to pensions matters. First, we have confirmation from HMRC that, as we said last week, the opportunity to send out electronic P60s will not be available until the end of the 2010/11 tax year, in a year’s time. Our Employer [...]

In last week’s newsletter we made reference to changes to the PAYE Regulations that will allow P60 End of Year Certificates to be issued to employees electronically rather than only in paper form.  The text of the legislative change (Regulation 13 in the amendment Regulations) indicates that, although the amendment Regulations come into force on [...]

Earlier in March, HMRC announced that further guidance would be issued to help employers who had experienced problems installing and using the 2010 Employer CD-ROM.  Updates are now available to download from the link below. Further information: Employer CD-ROM 2010 Sponsored by Learn Payroll

In October 2009, DWP published draft versions of some of the key Regulations governing the new pension personal accounts, due to come into operation in 2012.  At that time we were able to issue, in this newsletter, a fairly detailed description of how automatic enrolment will operate.  That article is still available at www.paypershop.com/payrollblog/pension-personal-accounts001-7/. Since [...]

The Government has announced the expected charging structure for the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST).  In the long term, the annual management charge is expected to be 0.3% of the value of the fund.  In the short term, however, to meet the costs of establishing the scheme, the initial level of charges will also include [...]

The Pensions Advisory Service has confirmed the government’s intention to abolish contracting out of the State Second Pension from 6 April 2012.  From that date, members of defined contribution occupational pension schemes, contracted-out personal pension schemes and stakeholder pension schemes will automatically be brought back into the State Second Pension. The change only applies to [...]

On 18 March, the Works and Pension spokeswoman, Theresa May, announced the specific actions that a Conservative government would take on pensions: The 2012 reforms for auto-enrolment and the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) will be addressed; auto-enrolment may be brought forward from 2012 on a voluntary basis, allowing employers to plan for implementation.  Concerns [...]

There seemed to be no end to the number of payroll news items that appeared over the past week. Right at the end of the week, new tax Regulations were made removing the requirement for P60 Certificates to be issued to employees in paper form. This opens the way for them to be send electronically, in the [...]

Alistair Darling will make his Budget statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, 24 March 2010. Further information: Budget Day set for 24 March Sponsored by Learn Payroll

From tax year 2009/10, the requirement to file year-end P35 and P14 Returns online is extended to employers of all sizes and, from tax year 2011/12, all employers, irrespective of size, will also be required to file in-year forms online.  The Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 include many regulations, paragraphs and Tables [...]

On 8 March 2010, the Council of the European Union adopted a Directive extending workers’ rights to parental leave from three to four months for each parent.  At least one of the four months cannot be transferred to the other parent (i.e. it is lost if not taken), encouraging fathers to take the leave. Other [...]

Also on 8 March 2010, the EU Council adopted its first-reading position on a draft Directive aimed at improving the social protection of self-employed workers, with a view to removing disincentives to female entrepreneurship.  It also seeks to improve the social protection of “assisting spouses”, who often work in the self-employed sector without enjoying the [...]

In July 2009, HMRC published the consultation paper False self-employment in construction: taxation of workers in which new proposals were made for tackling the culture of “false self-employment” in the construction industry. False self-employment occurs where workers are treated as self-employed for income tax and NICs purposes, despite the fact that the way in which [...]

In October 2009, HMRC published a consultation document entitled Lecturers, teachers, instructors or those in a similar capacity – In relation to the amendment of the Social Security (Categorisation of Earners) Regulations 1978. In certain specific situations, the Social Security (Categorisation of Earners) Regulations 1978 dictate that a self-employed person must be treated as an [...]

A first-time Double Taxation Agreement was signed by representatives of the UK and the Kingdom of Bahrain on 10 March 2010.  The Agreement enters into force once both countries have completed their legislative procedures.  The provisions of the Agreement will then take effect from the next calendar year. Further information: Double Taxation Agreement: Bahrain Text [...]

By means of the Taxation of Pensions Schemes (Rates, etc) Order 2010, the Government has increased the rate of two tax charges applicable to pension schemes. Short service refund lump sums The first is to the tax charge on the payment of short service refund lump sums to pension scheme members who leave employment with [...]

The Social Security legislation requires employed earners with two or more employments to pay NICs on earnings from each employment.  If that results in an employed earner paying more than the annual maximum of NICs liability, as set out in Regulation 21 of the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001, the earner may claim a refund [...]

Between April 2010 and April 2020, the state pension age for women will rise from 60 to 65.  By way of reminder, the effect of this change, which has been in legislation for many years, is that women born before 6 April 1950 will be able to claim their state pension at age 60 after [...]