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 same way that many employers are now issuing payslips. However, the Regulations apply only in relation to the 2010/11 tax year and beyond so it looks as if this relaxation of the rules will not be available until April/May 2011. We are awaiting HMRC’s confirmation of this.
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Posted March 19th, 2010 | No Comments »
A wide variety of topics are covered in this week’s newsletter. A key article is a summary of the Government’s plans to restrict the tax relief on employer-supported childcare – including childcare vouchers – for employees paying tax at 40% or 50%. The changes will not occur until 2011/12 and there are yet a number of unanswered questions. To support this news item, our Employer FAQ this week looks at the childcare tax exemption that is not affected by these plans – the provision of on-site nurseries.
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Posted March 10th, 2010 | No Comments »
This week’s newsletter, other than the regular payroll calendars, consists solely of a detailed article on the new medical statements, or “fit notes” that will be issued by doctors from 6 April 2009. They will have a significant impact on the way employers handle sickness absences and require employers to have a fresh look at the rules governing payment of SSP.
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Posted February 24th, 2010 | No Comments »
The problems caused by HMRC issuing duplicate coding notices continue to be an issue and HMRC have published at least two updates to reassure employers and employees. We have reproduced the latest announcements below.
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Posted February 18th, 2010 | No Comments »
Still over 2½ years away, we are currently finding out more and more about the 2012 pension reforms and the optional NEST scheme – but also identifying new areas where clarification is needed. This week we have some guidance from the Pensions Advisory Service, detailing some of the issues that employers should already be considering.
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Posted February 11th, 2010 | No Comments »
This week, for a change, we have a number of relatively short news items on a varied range of subjects. Two of the items resulted, at least in part, from questions raised on the PayPerShop Forum. Some employers reported that they were receiving multiple and conflicting coding notices for the same employee and HMRC subsequently issued an apology and explanation, which we have reproduced in the newsletter. Questions concerning salary sacrifice schemes are very common on the Forum, and our Employer FAQ this week is the response posted on the Forum to one such question. It tackles a common misconception about salary sacrifice schemes.
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Posted February 4th, 2010 | No Comments »
Two new sets of Regulations have been published over the past week, namely the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, which will require agency workers to be treated effectively as employees for the purpose of employment benefits, and a series of Additional Paternity Leave Regulations, which will allow fathers and adoptive parents to take up to a half of their partner’s maternity or adoption leave entitlements. Both provide a long preparatory period. We will be covering the Regulations in more detail when we have had time to check them over in more detail.
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Posted January 27th, 2010 | No Comments »
This is a rather technical newsletter so we have provided brief summaries of the two principal articles. The first article explains the new right to apply to undertake study and training courses during employment, which larger employers will have to handle from April 2010.
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Posted January 20th, 2010 | No Comments »
Our first newsletter of 2010 considers a number of changes that are effective from the start of the year, such as the new Acas Code of Practice on trade union duties and activities, additional resources for HMRC to identify employers paying below the national minimum wage, some revised booklets and the merger of the RCPO with the CPS to made the RCD of the CPS (try working it out!)
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Posted January 15th, 2010 | No Comments »
Some of the information that was made available immediately at the time of the Pre-Budget Report has now been made clear. The rates of SMP etc are increasing marginally from April but the rate of SSP is not changing. The regular annual changes to various employment law payments have also been announced – and some are going down. Not the rate of statutory redundancy pay, however, as that was increased last October and guaranteed not to go down if the statutory rules would otherwise have required a reduction.
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Posted December 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »
