Archived HR & Payroll Newsletters

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Below you can find a few of our most recent HR & Payroll newsletters.

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HR & Payroll Newsletters

March 2010

Introduction
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.

The other major article this week for readers with an interest in International Payroll looks at the changes to the E101 NICs procedures that are due for change from May 2010.  A related item gives details of a new report form for employers using the modified NICs procedures.

February 2010

Introduction
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.

What a misnomer “fit note” is!  DWP guidance is at pains to stress that patients are now unable to obtain a Statement that they are fit for work.  The name, in fact, derives from the new arrangement whereby doctors can indicate that a patient may be fit for work if the employer is able to make some adjustments to the patient’s working arrangements or environment.  The significance of this change cannot be overstated – every employer must consider how a doctor’s suggestions are going to be handled.

Introduction
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.

The problem faced by employers wanting to impose new terms and conditions on employees seems to have been solved by Asda, as revealed in a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision.  The solution seems to be too easy so it will be interesting to see if it survives a review by the Court of Appeal.

It seems that not a week goes by without a new issue being raised on the subject of salary sacrifice schemes.  They continue to be a significant topic of discussion on the PayPerShop Forum and this week’s Employer FAQ looks further at how employers might make benefits such as cycles “available generally” where the conditions for exemption are not met.
Other uses for salary sacrifices are also appearing.  Traditionally they have been used to take advantage of tax and NICs exemptions and their use by umbrella companies for travel expenses is the subject of a new consultation document published by HM Treasury.  We also heard this week of salary sacrifice schemes being used in situations where there are no direct tax and NICs savings to be made, such as in the provision of company cars in order, for example, to reduce the risk of corporate manslaughter charges when employees use their own cars for business trips, but also simply to provide a self-financing benefit for employees and family members.

We would be interested to hear more about any such innovative salary sacrifice schemes.  You can send any information to ian@paypershop.com or post the information on the PayPerShop Forum, at www.paypershop.com/forum.

Introduction
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.

We also have more about the new-style Medical Statements that we expect to come into use from April 2010.  And our new-style payroll calendar provides some of HMRC’s activities over the coming month, in addition to the regular employer deadlines.

There might appear to be two Employer FAQs this week but one of them is a new paragraph that clarifies some potentially misleading wording in last week’s article.  This week’s regular FAQ is a somewhat technical explanation of how to calculate NICs thresholds for some of the less common earnings periods – very useful if you need to calculate NICs manually – perish the thought!  This came from another recent response to a question asked on the PayPerShop Forum.

Introduction
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.

January 2010

Introduction
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.

Our Employer FAQ this week is entirely new and based on a question and answer about salary sacrifice schemes that appeared recently in the PayPerShop Forum.  What do you do when some employees want to participate in a salary sacrifice scheme but they don’t or can’t meet the statutory conditions for the tax and NICs exemption?

Are you joining in the PayPerShop Forum discussions or using it to obtain answers to everyday questions?

Introduction
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.

The other subject area is pensions, with one item about the increase in the normal minimum pension age from April 2010, and a more detailed review of the many statutory Orders and Regulations that nearly complete our understanding of the NEST pension scheme, with its requirement for automatic enrolment and mandatory employer contributions.  You can now work out when your business will have to take up its duties in the transition period between 2012 and 2016.

Introduction
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!)

Other items look forward to the April changes, such as the new tax provisions and the important new penalty regime that applies to all employers who make their monthly and quarterly payments late.  This latter change is also the subject of this month’s Employer FAQ.

And even further into the future to 2012, we have a one-off extra bank holiday and the opportunity for employees to set aside their “nest egg”.