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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.

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On 14 January 2010, in the case Colquhoun v Revenue & Customs, the First Tier Tax Tribunal ruled that Mr. Colquhoun was entitled to have his termination payments reduced by the £30,000 tax exemption.

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PAYE Procedures - Multiple coding notices for the same employee

Two weeks ago we highlighted a coding notice problem involving the issuing by HMRC of multiple and contradictory coding notices.  The problems reached the national press and HMRC has since published two updates on the situation.

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PAYE Procedures - Multiple coding notices for the same employee

A coding notice problem was highlighted recently by some correspondents to the PayPerShop Forum and similar issues were raised in the press and elsewhere.  Employers were receiving multiple and conflicting coding notices for individual employees.  In response to the problems, HMRC issued the following explanation: Continue reading


Early in 2009 HMRC announced that it was changing its bankers from the Bank of England to Citi and Royal Bank of Scotland Group and that new sort codes and accounts numbers were being introduced in April 2009.

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PAYE Procedures - Applying the 50% additional rate of tax

This is an adjustment to the item that appeared in the last newsletter of 2009.  The explanation confused the way in which HMRC will handle two tax changes from April 2010, namely (1) the new 50% additional rate of tax and (2) the reduction to the personal allowance for individuals with an annual income of £100,000 or more.

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A new “additional” higher tax rate of 50% is introduced for the 2010/11 tax year and applies to all taxable income, including savings income, above the £150,000 higher rate limit.  The Finance Act 2009 made no reference to this change; it should be expected to be included in the Finance Bill for 2010.

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The 2009 Pre-Budget Report documents made reference to “PAYE scheme pooling”. This arrangement would allow large connected employers to combine or “pool” their PAYE scheme references, returns and payment obligations in order to reduce administration time and costs.

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The Finance Act 2008 made provision for HMRC to accept payment of taxes by credit card but imposed a requirement for the taxpayer to pay a fee that covers the costs incurred by HMRC in handling the payment.

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Income Tax Rates - Handling the 50% tax rate from April 2010

In previous newsletters we have suggested that tax code D1 would likely be used to force deduction of tax under PAYE at 50% when this new higher rate is introduced in April 2010. Tax code D0 is currently used where all of an employee’s earnings are taxable under PAYE at the 40% tax rate. The current computer specifications for PAYE tax table routines define the use of tax codes D1 and even D2 for higher rates of tax. Most, if not all, computerised payroll systems are capable of handling tax code D1.

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