Category: RTI

What is the optimum tax efficient salary 2015-16?

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Many small business owners ask this question, typically they are a sole director and share holder and want to decide from a tax and NI perspective what the optimum salary is (the rest of their income coming from dividends).

The new lower earning threshold for National Insurance is £5,824 per year (£112 per week) for 2015-16, there is an advantage to paying above this level so that you will earn credits towards a state pension. Its expected in current terms that a years credit is worth £225 pension per year for life. Employees start paying NI when earnings are above £155 per week)

The Employment Allowance of £2,000 has been continued into 2015-16 which means you won’t have to pay any employer National Insurance contributions at all if you usually pay less than £2,000 a year.

The personal tax free allowance for 2015-16 is £10,600.

So assuming you aren’t a higher rate tax payer and you haven’t used up the employment allowance on other staff, £10,600 would be the optimum salary because:

Saved Corporation Tax at 20% = £2,120

Employee NI 12% on (£10,600 – £155 x52) = (£304.80)

Saving £1,815.20

Beyond this point income tax is payable at 20%

steve@bicknells.net

Trivial Benefits £50 exemption deferred

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It had been proposed that there will be a new statutory exemption for trivial benefits up to a limit of £50 from from 6 April 2015, this measure is not included in the first Finance Bill of 2015, it has been deferred until after the election.

The £50 tax exemption would have been on items such as birthday and Christmas gifts. The legislation would have also introduced an annual cap of £300 in some circumstances.

So we are stuck with the old rules for now

An employer may provide employees with a seasonal gift, such as a turkey, an ordinary bottle of wine or a box of chocolates at Christmas. All of these gifts can be treated as trivial benefits. . For an employer with a large number of employees the total cost of providing a gift to each employee may be considerable, but where the gift to each employee is a trivial benefit, this principle applies regardless of the total cost to the employer and the number of employees concerned. If a benefit is trivial it should not be included in a PSA (EIM21861).

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM21863.htm

There are some non taxable benefits you be interested in….

HMRC Helpsheet 207 – Non-taxable payments or benefits for employees

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/helpsheets/hs207.pdf

steve@bicknells.net

Abolition of under 21 NI

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From 6th April 2015 every employer with employees under the age of 21 will no longer be required to pay class 1 secondary NI on earnings below the upper earnings limit (£815 per week).

In line with the change, HMRC are introducing 7 new National Insurance Table Letters to be used from April 2015 to cater for these employees as follows:

Three of the new letters (V, I and K) will be removed in April 2016 in line with the ending of ‘contracted-out’ status in relation to salary-related occupational pension schemes. [Brightpay]

steve@bicknells.net

Will you have a week 53 payroll year end in 2015?

Close up of payslip

Monthly payrolls never have a week 53 but weekly, fortnightly and for-weekly paid employees will have a week 53 if the process date is Sunday 5th April 2015. If it falls on any other day you don’t have a week 53 this year.

In the ‘Tax week number’ field of your FPS, put:

  • ‘53’ if you pay your employees weekly
  • ‘54’ if you pay them fortnightly
  • ‘56’ if you pay them every 4 weeks

If you make a mistake

If you find a mistake in your final FPS of the year, what you need to do depends on the type of mistake and when you find it.

Mistake When What to do
Wrong payments or deductions By 19 April Send an additional FPS with corrected year-to-date figures, and enter ‘0’ in ‘Pay in this period’
Wrong payments or deductions After 19 April Send an EYU showing the difference between the amounts on the wrong FPS and the correct year-to-date amounts – don’t give the year-to-date amounts
Wrong payment date By 5 April Send an additional FPS with the correct payment date – put ‘0’ in ‘Pay in this period’ and give the year-to-date figures

A new type of employment status

The Office of Tax Simplification – Employment Status Report – March 2015 suggests we could see a new type of worker being created, part way between Employed and Self Employed. We could also see the term office holder removed from legislation.

Contractor Weekly reported – This involves the introduction of a new category of worker, a ‘third way’ between the employed and self-employed, acknowledging that some workers do not fit easily into either of the two traditional positions and that they should be subject to a modified set of tax rules. Freelancers might fall into this ‘third way’ and who might be seen as people who have chosen this route of working and want certainty over their status.

Click on this link to read the Employment Status Report

Will this solve the IR35 problem? who will it defined? what should the rules be?

Workers

 

steve@bicknells.net

Have you paid too much National Insurance?

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Unlike Income Tax which is cumulative and assessed across all earnings, National Insurance starts from zero on each individual employment and you also pay National Insurance on Self Employed earnings.

So if you are a Director of multiple businesses paid as an employee its easy to see how you could over pay and you might not even realise because National Insurance is not shown on your Self Assessment Return.

You can also over pay National Insurance if you are a part time employee with multiple employers and irratic earnings, this because National Insurance is calculated on a weekly/monthly basis, not a cumulative basis and its by employer.

What you need to do

Write to HM Revenue and Customs confirming:

  • your National Insurance number
  • why you’ve overpaid
  • the tax year(s) you’ve overpaid

You should include your P60 or a statement from your employer showing the tax and National Insurance for each year you’re claiming for.

You should apply within 6 years of the tax year you’re claiming for.

HM Revenue and Customs
Payment Reconciliation
National Insurance Contributions Office
Benton Park View
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE98 1ZZ

steve@bicknells.net

 

 

The mystery of the Specified Charge

Retro detective man smoking pipe walking in city street at night. Wearing a hat and raincoat. Mysterious atmosphere.

Many employers who submit mainly nil returns (ie small owner managed businesses) for RTI are likely to get a letter from HMRC with Specified Charges on them, this is because under RTI if you don’t pay any employees in a pay period you need to submit a return to HMRC, if you forget or mis a period, which with HMRC RTI Basic PAYE Tools is easily done, HMRC will create a charge.

HMRC define a Specified Charge as

These are amounts we have estimated to be due when we have not received the necessary RTI PAYE submissions. We base these on you previous filing and payment history. We do this under Regulation 75A Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003.

But as its an estimate is unlikely to be correct and on top of that HMRC will probably charge interest based on their Specified Charge.

If you get a Specified Charge check your RTI Submissions to makesure that you haven’t missed any, if you have missed one, post it now

steve@bicknells.net

 

RTI Declarations – Service Company

And now round two of justify it

It’s time to run your first RTI PAYE year end and you have your own limited company, how do you answer this question?

Service Company ‘Yes’ if you are a service company – ‘service company’ includes a limited company, a limited liability partnership or a partnership (but not a sole trader) – and have operated the Intermediaries legislation (Chapter 8, Part 2, Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (ITEPA), sometimes known as IR35). Otherwise indicate ‘No’.

The question is now a bit more specific, which is great, because you will only answer ‘Yes’ if you have operated IR35.

steve@bicknells.net

HMRC are going to let you tell them your tax code…

Pay Packet And Banknotes

It’s true, from April 2014, you can tell HMRC what you think your code should be by explaining why you think its wrong, here is a link to the HMRC structured E Mail

HMRC Link

This form can only be used for queries relating to your PAYE Coding Notice. Any other queries will not be answered.

HMRC aim to respond within 15 days of receiving your E Mail.

Checking your tax code

You’ll find your tax code on:

  • your pay slip
  • your PAYE Coding Notice – you usually get this a couple of months before the start of the tax year and you may also get one if something has changed but not everyone needs to get one
  • form P60 – you get this at the end of each tax year
  • form P45 – you get this when you leave a job

Your tax code can be wrong for lots of reasons so being able to sent a structured E Mail to HMRC should help to get things corrected faster.

steve@bicknells.net

Are you ready for your first RTI year end?

Close up of payslip

Basically you will need to:

  • Prepare P60’s (but no P14 and P35) by 31st May
  • Submit your final FPS or EPS
  • Update your Payroll Software for the New Tax Year

You can order your P60’s for free from HMRC http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payerti/forms-updates/forms-publications/onlineorder.htm

Here is a great video from HMRC

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) plans to make its Basic PAYE Tools product for the 2014-15 tax year available on 3 April 2014.

The 2014-15 version of Basic PAYE Tools will be provided as an update to the existing version rather than a separate download, so existing users do not need to go to the HMRC website to get the update.

steve@bicknells.net