Archive for April, 2011

The Finance (No. 3) Bill 2010-11 presented to Parliament on 29 March The Bill that will become the Finance Act 2011 has started its Parliamentary course and includes all of the changes and measures announced in the Budget. Further information: Finance (No. 3) Bill 2010-11

Temp agencies and employers are provided with draft guidance in advance of October implementation. The European Agency Worker Directive requires that agency workers have the same basic working and employment conditions as they would have if they were employed by and doing the same job for the business for which they are working. The Directive [...]

The latest update to Basic PAYE Tools includes missing calculators. The annual Employer CD-ROM, which has been replaced by the Basic PAYE Tools for 2011/12, included a basis PAYE tax calculator and an NICs calculator.  Both were missing from the Tools but have now been included in the latest update.  If you have set your [...]

Government proposes alternative ways of introducing a flat rate pension and a method of making future changes to the State Pension age. In a new consultation document, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) presents new government proposals for speeding up the process of moving to a flat-rate state pension, and introducing a statutory mechanism [...]

The Government has confirmed that the increases to the National Minimum Wage recommended by the Low Pay Commission have been accepted. The 2011 Report of the Low Pay Commission (LPC) was submitted to Government on 25 February 2011 and, on 7 April, the Government confirmed that all of the LPC’s recommendations had been accepted. Accordingly, [...]

HMRC invites software developers and employers to volunteer to be involved in the RTI pilot. In a press release issued on 4 April HMRC confirmed that Real Time Information will go ahead and that a pilot will begin in April 2012 with volunteer employers and software developers.  By October 2013, all employers will be required [...]

DWP has updated its NI17A Guide to Maternity Benefits HMRC’s E15 Helpbook provides general guidance on most aspects of maternity leave and Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), aimed at employers.  In contrast, the NI17A – A Guide to Maternity Benefits, just republished by the Department for Work and Pensions, provides technical guidance and includes references to [...]

Amendments to the Equality Act and the Employment Rights Act repeal fair dismissal and lawful age discrimination for employees reaching age 65. In October 2006, provision was made by means of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 for a default retirement age (DRA) of 65, which could be relied on by employers, if they wished, [...]

Tax code BR is to be used instead of 0T for payments after termination in the form of employment-related securities or securities options. Regulations requiring all termination payments made after form P45 has been issued to be taxed using code 0T have already been made and took effect from 6 April 2010. However, as a [...]

The “Extra-statutory concession” exempting some legal payment costs from a tax charge is enacted in the income tax legislation. Starting in 2009, HMRC has used statutory powers to legislate the provisions of various Extra-Statutory Concessions (ESCs) where it was believed that they exceeded HMRC’s discretion to make concessions that depart for the strict application of [...]

Surprise reversal of the extension of the right to request flexible working for carers of children aged 17. By means of the Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulations 2010, the government extended the flexible working entitlements (i.e. the right to request a contractual change to working hours, times of work and place of [...]

All grade rates increase by 1.9% from 4 April 2011 At a meeting of the Agricultural Wages Board for Northern Ireland on Friday, 25 March 2011, the Board increased minimum rates for agricultural workers across all grades by 1.9%. The new rates are: Minimum Rate, applicable for the first 40 weeks cumulative employment – £6.04 [...]

Each week we receive a number of payroll questions on our forum, and here are this week’s batch. Can you help with any answers? It’s the end of March, shouldn’t we have received our P11D(b) form by now? should I have received our P11d(B) ‘Return of Class 1A National Insurance Contributions’ form by now or [...]

Much of this week’s newsletter consists of items of interest provided by HMRC in its weekly “employer update” for employer representatives.  In reproducing these items, HMRC asks us to clarify that they should be viewed as ‘informal highlights, resulting from listening to employer feedback and working in partnership with employer representatives’. A few weeks ago [...]

Employers and agents can inform HMRC online if no Annual Return is due. If an employer fails to make a payment to HMRC Accounts Office, HMRC will eventually send a threatening “payment overdue” letter, warning of impending legal proceedings.  If the reason for not making a payment is that no monies were due, an employer [...]

The Nest scheme will offer a range of fund choices, including Higher Risk, Ethical and Sharia funds. NEST is the pension scheme that has been established to assist up to a million UK employers comply with their automatic enrolment obligations from 2012.  The NEST Corporation is the trustee of the NEST scheme. Following research and [...]

HMRC announces unavailability schedule in early April for online services using the HMRC portal and third party software. The following is an extract from the latest weekly informal update (dated 25 March) from HMRC to employer representatives. We wanted to let you know that there will soon be a short period of unavailability to our [...]

From April all employer work moves from local HMRC offices to one national location in Newcastle. The following is an extract from the latest weekly informal update (dated 25 March) from HMRC to employer representatives. From 1 April 2011 all employer work will be dealt with by the National Insurance Contributions and Employer Office (NIC&EO), [...]

HMRC provides schedule for replacing NI number cards with a letter during 2011. The following is an extract from the latest weekly informal update (dated 25 March) from HMRC to employer representatives. We told you in February’s Employer Bulletin that we are withdrawing the plastic National Insurance number (NINo) card and replacing it with a [...]

The first update to the Tools is  available to download. The following is an extract from the latest weekly informal update (dated 25 March) from HMRC to employer representatives. In our weekly update on 11 March I told you about an issue with the P11D working sheets which were calculating incorrectly.  We have now resolved [...]