| Enews - June 2007 | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
|
Tax credits final reminder
Tax credits are state benefits which are generally available to lower income families. However, entitlement to the credits is significantly increased where individuals pay for childcare or have a dip in normal levels of income perhaps due to incurring trading losses. Individuals who have already claimed tax credits for 2006/07 have to finalise their provisional award, which would have originally been based on their 2005/06 income, and advise HMRC of any changes in their circumstances for 2007/08. This procedure is known as the renewals process. The deadline for the submission of tax credit renewals is 31 July 2007, which is a month earlier than the renewal date last year which was 31 August. HMRC have been busily advertising the renewals process in the national press. Claimants need to be aware that the payment of tax credits will stop at the end of July if they have not renewed their applications by that date. HMRC are also reminding claimants that the deadline for letting them know that their circumstances have changed has been reduced from three months to just one. Some examples of the sorts of changes which have to be notified in year are changes in family circumstances, perhaps a partner moving in or out of the family home, or a reduction in childcare costs. A reduction of £10 a week for a mere four weeks has to be reported! If you need any help with the completion of your form or any advice on tax credits generally please do get in touch.
Personal accounts pensions The government has published details of a new savings scheme which will give all employees the right to a workplace pension with a contribution from their employer. At present employers with five employees have to offer access to a pension scheme but do not have to make an employer contribution. The government made the announcement in response to the Personal Accounts consultation which was recently published and new research showed strong support for plans to tackle ‘savings inertia’ by automatically enrolling employees into the new scheme. Some of the key findings of the report were:
“The new pensions saving scheme we are setting out today will be a major step forward for employees across Britain and can kick-start a new culture of retirement saving. We know that people are far more likely to save for their retirement if they have access to a simple, low cost pension with a contribution from their employer. That is exactly what Personal Accounts will provide. The details of the new scheme we are setting out today can help people overcome the inertia that holds people back from saving while taking important steps to protect existing pension provision.” The government expect that six to ten million people would save in personal accounts from 2012. Personal accounts will have low charges which should ensure that people keep more of their savings. Under the Personal Accounts scheme employees should see their savings in personal accounts matched £1 for £1 by a combination of contributions from their employer and the government. The proposal is that employees will be expected to contribute a minimum of 4% of their salary. The employer would contribute a minimum of 3% and this would be topped up by a further 1% from the government in tax relief. This is a radical change as for the first time employees will have the right to a contribution from their employer which will increase the value of their pension fund. To read more about the Personal Account Pensions visit the Department for Work and Pensions website.
Arctic Systems decision The long running saga of Geoff and Diana Jones and their company Arctic Systems Limited has been back to the courts last week, this time to the House of Lords. Just in case you need a reminder, the case concerned a company owned by a husband and wife, Geoff and Diana Jones, and hinged on whether dividends paid by the company to Mrs Jones (who was not a higher rate taxpayer) should be shown on her husband self assessment return and taxed as his income at a higher rate of tax. You may recall that the case went to the Court of Appeal where the taxpayer won. The case was heard in a mere two days and the outcome of the hearing is expected shortly. We hope to bring you the decision and its implications in next month’s enews.
28 days holiday entitlement - but not yet A couple of months ago we reported on the government’s proposal to increase the minimum statutory holiday entitlement from the current 20 days (including bank holidays) to 28 days (bank holidays inclusive). The 28 days equates to 5.6 weeks for an employee working a five day week. The government has recently published its response to the further consultation and the regulations are making their way through parliament. Parliamentary approval should be forthcoming by the end of June which will give employers three months notice to implement the changes. Following the consultation some amendments have been made. The main change is delaying when employees will be entitled to the full amount of additional leave. The government will delay introducing the second increase from 4.8 to 5.6 weeks until 1 April 2009. This will increase the holiday entitlement of an employee, who works a five day week, from 24 days to 28 days leave. Apparently there has been pressure from the health and social care sector, which has led to the government proposing the later date. The original proposal had been to introduce the change from 1 October 2008. The initial increase from 4 to 4.8 weeks, or 20 to 24 days for an employee who works a five day week, will come into effect on 1 October 2007, as originally suggested. The government have amended the proposals to enable employers to pay employees for the additional holiday entitlement (the additional 0.8 weeks or 4 days) until 1 April 2009. This is a temporary measure to ease the transition. The increased leave entitlement includes bank holidays, so employees who already get four weeks leave plus bank holidays will not be entitled to an increased entitlement. Part time workers minimum entitlement will be calculated on a pro-rata basis (4.8 then 5.6 times their usual working week), regardless of whether or not they usually work on bank holidays. Increases from October 2007 and April 2009 will be calculated proportionally depending on when the leave year starts. The DTI’s announcement includes the following example. ‘If your leave year started in April, you work a 5 day week and you currently receive 20 days including bank and public holidays, you will be entitled to 2 additional days from October 2007 to March 2008.’ The government also state that they plan to cap the maximum statutory holiday entitlement at 28 days, but that employers may give more contractual holiday than that if they choose. Also some or all of the additional holiday may be carried forward to the following leave year with the agreement of both the employer and employee. Payment in lieu of additional holiday will not be permitted from 1 April 2009 unless paid on termination of employment. The DTI will make an online calculator available shortly and we will let you have the link for this as soon as it is available. These proposals relate to England , Wales and Scotland . The Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland are in the process of making proposals for Northern Ireland .
Face to face inerviews for passport applications From 1 June 2007 first time adult passport applicants will no longer be able to use the fast track application service due to a new requirement which means that they may have to attend a face to face interview. The applications made by these individuals will have to be made through the full application process which takes about six weeks. The fast track service is still available for those renewing a passport. Fast track passport applications take about a week, much less than the full application process. The change has been introduced as an anti-fraud measure and will mean that new adult applicants will have to attend a face to face interview which will include simple questions about them and their families. According to the Home Office approximately 10% of annual passport applicants, approximately 609,000 people, have never had a passport before. Who will be interviewed? According to the guidance issued: ‘Only adults who have never previously held a British passport in their own name will need to have an interview. This will not apply to people who held their own passport as a child, but it will apply to those whose names were included in a parent’s passport.’ The Identity and Passport Service ( IPS) are advising that new applicants should allow six weeks for the application to be processed and that travel arrangements should not be finalised before all family have valid passports. The interview requirement may in future be extended to other types of passport applications. IPS will in future need to see all applicants in person for fingerprinting when the UK, in line with international developments, adds fingerprints to passports from 2009.
Safe driving Not sure what is a sensible driving policy for your business? The Department for Transport (DFT) has set up a new website which contains practical guidance to help businesses comply with their legal obligations. A business must have a safety policy document if it employs five or more employees. The DFT sets out recommendations for the contents of the policy and reports some statistics, some of which are disturbing:
P11D deadline looming The forms P11D, which report employees and directors benefits in kind and expenses for the year ended 5 April 2007 are due for submission to HMRC by 6 July 2007. The process of tracking down the information can take some time so don’t leave things until the last minute. Some things to be aware of: Company cars The benefit is based on a percentage of the list price plus accessories – not what the business paid for the car. The percentage is linked to the CO 2 emissions of the car. Provision of fuel Employees provided with free fuel for private as well as business motoring will be assessed on a further benefit calculated as a percentage linked to the CO 2 emissions of the car and a set figure of £14,400. This is a good time to check whether or not the individual would be better off paying for their own private fuel. Don’t forget that the employer also pays 12.8% employer only Class 1A NIC on the value of broadly all benefits in kind so there is a saving for the business as well. Vans In 2005/06 HMRC changed the rules on the provision of vans and where the private use of a van is restricted to ordinary commuting (for example, restricting personal use to just home to work travel) then the benefit in kind scale charge of £500 (for 2006/07) can be avoided. In order for the benefit in kind to be avoided employers should have amended employees’ contracts and staff handbooks to reflect the change. Employers should also be able to prove that they have enforced the restricted private use policy. The £500 benefit has increased six fold to £3,000 from 6 April 2007 so it may be time to confirm whether employees understand the implication of the increased benefit charge on them personally. For a basic rate tax payer the increased tax charge on the provision of the van is £660 as opposed to £110 for last year. It is not possible to change your van policy now and back date it to the beginning of the tax year but changes can be put in place part way through the tax year. If you would like any help with the completion of the forms P11D please get in touch.
PAYE online HMRC have issued a reminder to employers concerning their PAYE online service. The online service, which is used by many employers to submit the employer annual returns P35 and P14, is also used by HMRC to issue PAYE notices and reminders back to the employer. Employers can opt out of online notification and we have included a link at the bottom of this article to enable you to do this if appropriate. HMRC have also reminded employers that they must access and action the online notices regularly. If not, there is a risk that employers may make incorrect deductions from their employees by using out of date tax codes. The online system is also used to advise smaller employers, those with less than 50 employees, that HMRC have awarded them the tax-free payment for filing end of year returns.
|
||||||||||