When Universal Credits were introduced, replacing means-tested social security benefits and tax credits, we were told it would streamline the benefits system, tackle poverty amongst low income families, and reduce the scope for error and fraud. This benefit requires the use of employment earnings obtained from employers in real time via the RTI submissions sent […] Read more »
Calculating Holiday Pay
Summer season is here and especially during school holidays, many workers are looking to take time off work, so employers need to check their workers are getting the holiday they are owed. The definition of a worker according to the government is a person that has a contract or other arrangement to do work or […] Read more »
Employment Law Changes from April 2019
There are quite a few employment law changes from April 2019 that will affect your payroll. New legislation from 6th April requires all employers to provide a payslip to all workers, and to show hours on payslips where their pay varies by the amount of time worked. Many employers will need to review and potentially […] Read more »
Increases in minimum contributions for automatic enrolment pensions
Under automatic enrolment, minimum pension contributions are required to increase over time. With effect from 6th April 2018 the total contribution increases from the current minimum of a total contribution of 2% of qualifying earnings, to a total of 5%, and again on 6th April 2019, increasing to a total minimum of 8%. The employer […] Read more »
Auto-Enrolment Declaration of Compliance
Auto-enrolment saw it’s fourth anniversary in October, yet more than 900,000 employers have yet to stage and fulfill their employer duties. This means the challenge posed by the initial roll-out is not over. All employers with one or more staff have a legal requirement to complete a declaration of compliance. Even if that one member […] Read more »
Personal Tax Account
Have you registered with HMRC for your Personal Tax Account? It’s quick to register and you can view all of your tax information in the one place online. The Personal Tax Account (PTA) was launched in December 2015 and gives customers a one-stop shop for all of their tax information. It gives customers the flexibility to […] Read more »
National Minimum Wage
The largest ever legal claim against the care sector has been launched in what could turn out to be one of the worst breaches of pay rules ever seen. Seventeen care workers claim to have been paid less than half the minimum wage, the company says that is not correct and that it pays its […] Read more »
Childcare Vouchers during Maternity Leave
One issue that causes employers a lot of anxiety is where a woman is receiving childcare vouchers (CCVs) as part of a salary sacrifice scheme and then goes on maternity leave. The business must continue to provide the CCVs during maternity leave and cannot opt the employee out of the salary sacrifice scheme. However, the […] Read more »
Auto Enrolment Minimum Contributions: Phasing Date Changing
The date the Auto enrolment minimum contributions were due to increase has changed in order to align with the tax year. So now, instead of total minimum contributions increasing from 2% to 5% in October 2017, a delay of six months until April 2018 will be applied. Similarly, the planned increase in contributions in October […] Read more »
Christmas Gifts and Parties
It’s Christmas time again and some employers may be providing their staff with a Christmas bonus, a seasonal gift or a Christmas party. If a gift is given, you need to consider whether the item can be resold or exchanged for cash by the employee or if it is considered as trivial and therefore tax […] Read more »