Payroll Year End 2011

March 4, 2011 - PRLog -- As ever, with the change of tax year comes a wealth of changes to legislation. Please see below for some helpful facts and quick pointers to ensure your year end runs smoothly.

•   The standard tax code for a normal employee is rising from 647L to 747L. This means that the weekly tax allowance rises from £125.00 to £144.00

•   Standard rate National Insurance is rising by 1% . This increase is to employees standard rate N.I. and to standard employers N.I. Although tax codes change every year, it is rare that National Insurance rises. From this year employees standard rate N.I. is 12% and employers is 13.8%

•   Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay are all to rise to £128.73 per week.

•   Statutory Sick Pay rises to £81.60 per week.

All the above statutory benefits are subject to the increased earnings threshold of £102.00; employees only qualify for statutory payments if their average weekly earnings are equal to or are over the earnings threshold.

From April 6th 2011 almost all employers are required to file their Employer Annual Return (P35 and P14s) online. The only employers who can file on paper are:

•   employers entitled to operate PAYE using the Simplified Deduction Scheme for personal and domestic employees – provided they haven’t previously received a tax-free payment for online filing

•   practising members of religious societies or orders whose beliefs are incompatible with the use of electronic methods of communication

•   employers who employ someone to provide care or support services at or from their home – subject to a number of conditions (follow link below)

•   limited companies filing a return solely to submit an entry in box 28 of form P35 (‘CIS deductions suffered’) – these returns cannot be filed online

If you file your return on paper when required to file online, HMRC may charge you a penalty.

If you use a payroll bureau then they will ensure all your year end is submitted in the correct way and on time. If you are filing your payroll year end yourself, please remember that your P35 AND your P14s have to have been submitted electronically by 19th May 2011. HMRC are likely to impose a fine if either are late or inaccurate.

Also remember to issue P60s to all your employees as soon as possible after 6th April. It is a legal requirement that employees receive their P60s before the 31st May, so the earlier they receive them the better.

Remember to continue to action tax forms such as P46s, P45s and P6s as soon as they arrive, however ONLY action P9s on the first pay date AFTER 6th April 2011. The form P9 is an instruction of which tax code to operate during the tax year 2011-2012, so actioning it on a pay date before the 6th April may issue an incorrect tax calculation and possible incorrect rebate.

At the change of tax year, remember to also remove Week1 / Month 1 flags from employees tax codes, ensuring they are changed to a cumulative code on the first pay date after 6th April.

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