The Better Way To Pay

Our blog has moved!

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:07:00 +0000

You can now follow us at: www.qtac.co.uk/payrollblog/

New P45

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:08:00 +0000

From 6 April 2009 you must use the new versions of form P45 which were introduced by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) last year.. You should also destroy any stocks of the old A5 P45s and forms P160 still on hand at that date.

The pre-printed A4 versions of the P45 are available from HMRC’s Employer Orderline – 0845 764 6646. Order now so that you are ready to give the new form P45 to employees who leave after 5 April. Do not leave it until the last minute.

The new versions of the form include the date of birth and gender fields. This information will help HMRC to match an employee’s information to their records when the forms are processed and reduce the number of queries to employers. These fields must be completed from 6 April 2009.

If you use HMRC’s free Online Return and Forms – PAYE product you can print parts 1A, 2 and 3 of form P45 onto A4 plain paper, when you have submitted the P45 part 1 (employee leaving details) to HMRC online. This facility is also available in some payroll software packages. The form should be printed onto white A4 paper, using black ink.

Employees may not recognise the new forms. You can reassure them that the form P45 has only changed in appearance and, apart from the new fields mentioned above, the information requested and the procedures around it remain unchanged.

A P45 is the form you complete when an employee stops working for you. It is a record of the pay and the tax that has been deducted so far in the tax year. A P45 has four parts - part 1, part 1A, part 2 and part 3. You send part 1 to HMRC and usually give the employee the other three.

Notes on data migration 08/09 to 09/10:

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:57:00 +0000

Before using the migration utility in Qtac Payroll 09/10, be sure that the 08/09 application has been updated to the latest version (9.20.0) from the 09 95 CD (containing the 09/10 tax year) and that all staff members have been paid and closed to the end of the year.

When you are ready to run the migration utility make sure Qtac Payroll 08/09 is completely closed. You may need to use Task Manager to confirm this.

Staff who leave the company during the 08/09 tax year will not be migrated as they do not effect the P35 for 09/10.

Blank or Service Not Available errors on electronic submission:

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:56:00 +0000

If you receive a blank or “service not available” error message whilst attempting to submit your P35 online you should check your internet connection has full connectivity (contact your IT Department if you are unsure) and then try again.

Checking your user credentials:

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:53:00 +0000

There are six main user credentials that the government gateway client checks before accepting an online submission – you will need to check these for typing mistakes and if necessary, validity.

1. In Company > Company Maintenance > Tax, NI & Pension check the Tax District Number for that company has been entered correctly.
2. In the same location, check that the ‘Ref’ is the correct PAYE tax reference for that particular company.
3. In File By Internet > Setup check that the User ID under ‘ID Authentication’ is the same as you would use to log in to the gateway client at: www.gateway.gov.uk
4. Likewise, check the password at the same site.
5. Check the email address on this screen is the same as you registered with the HMRC.
6. Finally, on the same Setup screen, check your agent details are entered correctly – particularly your Agent ID (if applicable).

If you have confirmed that all the above is correct, you will need to log in to the government gateway (using the link above) to make sure that the information you have input into the Qtac software matches what the HMRC is expecting (e.g. does the PAYE reference you entered into Qtac match what the HMRC has on its site?). If the user credentials don’t match then you will need to correct the information in Qtac or contact the HMRC. If there is no information for the company you are trying to submit on the gateway website then you are not registered to submit for this company – again you will need to contact the HMRC directly.

HMRC PAYE Helpline: 0845 60 55 999

Error 1046 on submitting P35’s and other reports online:

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:52:00 +0000

Many of our customers find it more convenient to submit their end of year information online, you also gain a tax incentive for the following year. However, during the submission process you may encounter the following message:

“Error 1046 supplied user credentials failed validation”

This message, although displayed in our Qtac Payroll application, is in fact generated by the government gateway when one or more pieces of information have been incorrectly entered into the software.

Checking your end of year figures before submission:

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:49:00 +0000

You might want to check your end of year figures before submitting them online to prevent future problems. If you select Reports > HMRC Remittance Advice > Print then from the print menu specify the start and end pay periods as ‘1’, then click ‘Print Preview’, you will see you’re the amount you need to pay the HMRC for month 1. On closing this report you may be presented with a message asking you to update the figures in the EOY Totals table – to which you reply ‘Yes to All’. Do this again for period 2, 3, etc, until all months have been checked.

If you now select Company > EOY Totals you can see a monthly analysis of tax paid to the Revenue, how much needs to be paid total, etc. You can also manually type in any incentives gained from submitting online in the previous year (if applicable) or any funding received. The Qtac Full and Complete submission utility uses the EOY Totals table for automatically filling its P35 information.

All the information on the EOY Totals table can be overtyped if necessary EXCEPT FOR THE CALCULATED IR RETURNS!

Important Notice!

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:45:00 +0000

The 08/09 financial year has 53 weeks – be sure all your staff have been paid to the correct period and closed accordingly.

FAILING TO PAY AND CLOSE YOUR STAFF CORRECTLY WILL LEAD TO INCORRECT P35 FIGURES AND CAUSE PROBLEMS WHEN MIGRATING STAFF INFORMATION TO THE 09/10 VERSION OF QTAC PAYROLL!

Christmas Opening Hours

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:34:00 +0000

Over the Christmas period our office opening hours will be as follows -

Wednesday 24/12/2008 Open 09:00 Close: 15:00

Monday 29/12/2008 Open: 10:00 Close: 15:00

Tuesday 30/12/2008 Open: 10:00 Close: 15:00

Wednesday 31/12/2008 Open: 10:00 Close: 15:00

Friday 02/01/2009 Open: 10:00 Close: 15:00

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Maternity Rights

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:28:00 +0000

Changes to maternity leave legislation came into effect last month for women whose expected week of childbirth is on or after 5th October 2008. This means that employers must continue to provide contractual benefits for up to 52 weeks, and could result in a significant cost increase for some employers.

Under new regulations employers will be obliged to continue all contractual benefits, with the exception of any benefits treated as cash, such as retail vouchers, for the full period of statutory maternity leave. This includes any benefits selected under a flexible benefit plan or other salary sacrifice arrangement that is contractual - Usually meaning any benefit that is provided through a gross pay adjustment.

Wrapped up with this extension to the maternity rights was the HMRC’s clarification of the existing salary sacrifice arrangements. Employers have effectively been treating salary sacrifice arrangements incorrectly during periods of maternity leave; they have generally deducted salary sacrifice amounts from the higher level of SMP (90% of average weekly earnings) and then stopped the benefits when the SMP drops to the lower level or when pay ceases. HMRC has confirmed these practices are not permitted.

The majority of focus on this has been on childcare vouchers. Employers must therefore continue to provide the level of childcare vouchers that the employee had enjoyed prior to maternity leave. If the employer only provides Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) then there will be no scope to recover the costs from the employee through a salary sacrifice arrangement. In effect the whole cost of childcare vouchers must be borne by the employer. If enhanced company maternity pay is provided, then this can be used for salary sacrifice arrangements so long as pay is not reduced to below SMP.So, if an employee has a salary sacrifice arrangement for the maximum £243 per month in childcare vouchers and then commences maternity leave based on SMP only, her employer will have to fund the full cost of the vouchers (an annual cost of £2,916).

It appears as though pension benefits need only be continued while the employee is in receipt of any pay – which for most employees will mean 39 weeks. However there is some debate over whether EU law actually this also to extend to 52 weeks. Most employers are complying with the 39 week rule and are awaiting further clarification.
The first action to take is to work out the likely cost exposure based on current maternity leavers. If the potential costs are unacceptably high then the ultimate sanction is to withdraw benefits such as childcare vouchers. However, this would be a blow to many employees as they would lose the valuable tax break on their childcare costs. Alternatively the employer can help to control their costs exposure, for example by:
• Limiting the ability of employees to increase these benefits at the point of going on maternity leave,
• Introducing a maximum cap on the amount of salary that can be sacrificed,
• Reviewing maternity pay definition to ensure that any enhanced maternity pay is on earnings after any salary sacrifice adjustments,
• Changing the structure of flexible benefit plans so that certain benefits with only modest tax advantages, such as dental insurance and others taxed as benefits in kind are treated as net pay deductions rather than gross. This has an effect of making the benefits non-contractual and therefore outside the scope of regulations.

For the time being most employers are ensuring they are compliant and adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach to see what the true financial impact will be.

Be Aware of the New P45 Regulations

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:27:00 +0000

Employers (or rather, PAYE schemes) will shortly be receiving a letter from HM Revenue & Customs reminding them of their obligations to e-file for both tax year end submissions of P14’s & P35’s, and new obligations for those with 50 or more employees to in-year e-file their P45’s, or else be subject to penalties and fines on the scale starting at £100 through to £3,000 per quarter based on staff numbers.

As part of the change, one of the most visible is the public view of the P45
‘Details of employee leaving work’. Although minor tweaks have been made to the P45 over the years, its format has generally remained recognisable, A document that is passed from one employer to the next.

The main reason for change is additional information required by revised regulations, and the HMRC quest for better citizen identification. HMRC records have not been overly accurate in the past for many reasons.

With onset e-filing mandation, this all changes. The central HMRC guidance on form completion of the P45 & P46 must be applied correctly by employers, and regulations have been passed into law to ensure more accurate data is provided. Employers must additionally obtain the employee’s birth date, gender and the detail that some employers are not aware of is the requirement to report the employee’s address, not the employers address or ‘not known’. Some of these regulation changes are already in force, although many HR and payroll departments may not be aware.

The National insurance number (NINO) is highly desirable for individuals who have one, but therein lies the problem: not everyone has a NINO, for various reasons, or they have not been issued one yet. The NINO is not proof of entitlement to work in the UK; official documents outlined by the Home Office and in regulations detail what information employers need to see and record to prove an employee’s entitlement to work in the UK. A minority of workers who claim to have a valid NINO actually don’t and have some form of identification that either detail someone else’s number or is completely made up.

A change that may fox some is the introduction of the new format in a laser print online version. The standard pre-printed form from HMRC will have coloured shading, but these new online formats do not. They are allowed to be used by employers that e-file the leaver P45 with HMRC, either via the internet or by Electronic Data Interchange as an option.

The new format forms were available for use from October 2008, so employers may increasingly see the new format forms as they come into use over the next few months. The old format forms will officially be withdrawn from 6th
April 2009, when all employers should be using new format forms. Employers may receive an old format form after, but they should certainly accept all genuine-looking

P45s. Some will be from prior tax years, when the form was absolutely correct to use; some may be from new employers that for some reason are using an old supply of forms and may not have caught up the new requirements.

Qtac's payroll software will support the new format of P45.

The National Minimum Wage - Tips, Gratuities and Service Charges

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:16:00 +0000

The National Minimum Wage was first introduced on April 1st, 1999 and almost everyone who works in the UK is legally entitled to be paid it, even if an employer asks a worker to sign an employment contract at a lower rate of pay.
From October 1st of this year the minimum wage for workers aged 22 and over rose by 3.8% from £5.52 to £5.73. For 18-21 year olds the rate rose to £4.77 whilst 16-17 year olds increased to £3.53 up from £3.40. But worryingly a study by Bibby Financial Services found that approximately 31% of UK small business owners and managers were ‘not fully aware’ of the October changes, while 44% of smaller businesses, those with four or fewer employees, were ‘completely unaware’ of the increase.

It is a surprising statistic that there is still so much uncertainty among small businesses about national minimum wage legislation, particularly when the government is enforcing tougher penalties for non-compliance. Last year, a children’s nursery owner became the first person to be prosecuted by HM Revenue & Customs for breaking minimum wage laws. Under the new legislation firms can be fined up to £5000 or face criminal prosecution.
Business Secretary John Hutton said: "The national minimum wage remains one of the most important rights introduced by the government in the last decade. Before it was introduced, some workers could expect to be paid as little as 35p an hour, our legislation has ensured that can no longer happen.”

The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 (‘the Regulations’) state that ‘all money paid by the employer to the worker’ should be counted towards the NMW and that excluded from this is ‘any money payment made by the employer to the worker representing amounts paid by customers by way of a service charge, tip, gratuity or cover charge that is not paid through payroll’. Employers should be able to produce single sheet documents proving they are compliant with NMW legislation.

John Hutton also revealed proposals for making tipping practices fairer and emphasised the importance of improving awareness. He called on employers to clarify how tips were distributed so that customers knew where their money was going.
Waiters and waitresses across the country have been hungry for the tips loophole to be closed and the changes will end the practice of employers using gratuities and service charges processed through payroll to top up staff wages to meet the NMW.
A Fair Tips logo will be introduced into bars and restaurants across the UK – showing that all staff receives at least the NMW and all tips.

A consultation on implementing the government's recommendations to prevent tips counting towards the NMW will be launched this autumn and will be followed by guidance for both workers and employers to ensure a smooth transition when the regulations are changed, which is anticipated to be 2009.
Employers can call the Minimum Wage helpline on 0845 6000 678 for further assistance concerning national minimum wage legislation.

HMRC PAYE System Delay.

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:05:00 +0000

HMRC’s Pay As You Earn modernisation programme, intended to bring details together on to one central system, has been suspended due to the workload created by the ‘emergency budget’.

The system had been due to go live in October this year, but this has now been delayed indefinitely and may not be completed in 2009.

The centralisation of the system would remove duplicate records that are currently held, thus decreasing the workload of keeping all information updated, making it more manageable and increasing security as duplicate content means an increased risk of data loss.

For further information, please visit Payroll World.

How will the September tax changes affect you?

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:03:00 +0000

Alistair Darling has performed an unprecedented u-turn as Chancellor by changing and back-dating income tax thresholds during the tax year.

Following the furore and political crisis that followed the elimination of the 10p tax band where millions of employees lost out, the latest action to reduce the impact is to increase the personal tax allowance by £600, for example the emergency tax code of 543L will change to 603L changing allowances from £5,435 to £6,035.

The amount of earnings on which the 20% tax is due will decrease from £36,000 to £34800 and as a result the higher rate threshold, the point from which 40% tax is due on earnings will be reduced from £41,435 to £40,835

The overall effect is to reduce the taxable pay of 20% tax payers by £600 during 2008/09, with a resulting fall of £120 in the amount of tax paid within the year. Monthly paid employees with cumulative tax codes will receive £60 of this £120 in their September pay, followed by £10 a month for the rest of the tax year. Weekly paid employees' net pay will increase by about £53 in week 23 and by about £2.30 per week thereafter. Employees with non-cumulative codes will receive an increase of £10 monthly paid or around £2.30 weekly paid, and will receive the full increase when either they are given a cumulative code during the tax year or after the year end when their full liability for the year has been determined.

So what effect will this have on us? Well, from an employee's point of view the major changes will be that anyone not exceeding the new £6,035 allowance will stop paying tax altogether but if their pay exceeds that amount and they are cumulative paid they will be paying £120 less tax over the year. There are unfortunately still downsides in the new Personal Tax Allowance. Employees who earn between £6,035 and £10,510 will still pay more tax than they would have done if the 10% rate had remained in place. At the same time employees earnings between £16,000 and £40,000 who already benefit from the April 2008 changes are gaining a further £120 in their net pay.

There are no changes to the age 65 and 75 personal allowances. These have already been increased substantially from April 2008.

Employers will receive a letter from the HMRC warning them of the change to the tax bands and personal allowances sometime in July/August but here at Qtac we will be going that step further and be distributing an update to all of our customers, which will simply update all L suffix codes and tax bands within our client's payroll so that our clients can continue their daily duties with little interruption. If you are using any Qtac Payroll Products payroll software full instructions will be given in plenty of time but importantly remember that you must implement changes after the last payday before 7th September.

The Paperless Payroll: A Way to Save Money and Go Green.

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:49:00 +0000

Despite the increased use of the Internet and computing technology as a whole, paper consumption, for most businesses, is actually increasing by 20% every year. From printing out e-mails to web pages, offices produce large amounts of paper waste. Unnecessary paper consumption is costly, wastes time and decreases productivity.

Payroll bureaux require cheques and reports to be produced periodically, which are generally posted to the recipient (whether it is an employee or employer). Even for a local payroll this would mean a trip of several miles before delivery of the documents. But this does not take into account the other paper-consuming activities of the typical payroll department such as faxes, reports for reconciliation, reports printed in error and archived documentation.

So, how much does the average payroll bureau spend on producing all of this documentation AND more importantly how much can be saved by going paperless?

We surveyed The Payroll Department, a payroll services company based in Bristol. They run 120 payrolls per month, varying in size from one to several hundred employees. It’s estimated that the total amount the bureau spends on all document printing, filing and storage (associated with payroll) is £3259 per year.

Qtac’s payroll software has the ability to export all reports into several formats including Excel Spreadsheets and Adobe PDF. Our professional software goes one step further allowing users to email payslips automatically to all employees in a company payroll.

A pleasant result for a business intending to go ‘paperless’ would not only save money, but would also:

Reduce deforestation as no requirement for paper.
Reduce energy consumption, used in production of paper and transportation.
Reduce greenhouse emissions by cutting out delivery of documents.
Generate no waste, so less land filling.

Do you want to know how much you could you save?

Use our paperless payroll cost saving calculator now to see the benefits of going green!

What else can we do to ‘Go Green’ at work?

Turn off lights and electronic equipment when not needed.
Use recycled paper and source recycled documents (like payslips).
Recycle as much as possible.
Invest in company cars with low emissions.
Make the most of government incentives and schemes (like the Government Cycle to Work Scheme).
Try to create a recycling buzz in the office!

Useful links:

Qtac Payroll Products - Payroll Software for a paperless office.

Payroll Outsourcing from The Payroll Department

Microsoft.com – 6 Tips for a paperless office

And there's more !!!

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:10:00 +0000

Friday 5 September 19.30 - Monday 8 September

Due to essential maintenance you may experience a delay in receiving your acceptance/rejection response to your submissions for this service, if you use HMRC software or our payroll software between 19.30 on Friday 5 September and Monday 8 September. The HMRC aim to keep any disruption to a minimum. They will make every effort to restore the service before Monday 8 September.

We here at Qtac would also like to apologise for the lack of variety of the last few posts, but unfortunately we have no control over this! We promise that the next post will be more interesting!

More HMRC Service Shortages...

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:46:00 +0000

Wednesday 10 September 00.00 - 06.00

Due to a scheduled upgrade, this service will be unavailable to users of HMRC software between 00.00 and 06.00 on Wednesday 10 September. Qtac payroll software users will be unable to submit their returns or view PAYE notices, notifications and reminders at this time.

HMRC Government Gateway Service Shortage

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:54:00 +0000

Saturday 30 August 08.00 - 16.00

Due to essential maintenance, if you use third party payroll software (this includes our users) to electronically file submissions between 08.00 and 16.00 on Saturday 30 August you will experience a delay in receiving your acceptance/rejection response to your PAYE End of Yearreturn . PAYE In Year and Expense and Benefit submissions will not be affected.

HMRC has apologised for any inconvenience this may cause.

Monday 1 September 20.00 – Tuesday 2 September 06.00

Due to essential maintenance this service will be unavailable between 20.00 on Monday 1 September and 06.00 on Tuesday 2 September to users of HMRC's own software.

If you use third party software (this includes our users) you can file as normal and still access your PAYE notices, notifications and reminders during this downtime.

Again, the HMRC have apologised for any inconvenience this may cause!

Qtac Update for 'Emergency Budget'.

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:50:00 +0000

A new software update for the 'Emergency Budget" is now available for Qtac Payroll Products customers. This update reflects the changes that have came about as a result of the governments unexpected changes to the tax bands that will take effect from the 7th September.

All customers will receive an installation CD, so please ensure that the update is installed prior to running any payroll that is to be paid on or after the 7th September.

If, for any reason, you do not receive a disk, an update can be downloaded from our payroll software support pages.

MP's Children Off of the Payroll.

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:07:00 +0000

New government proposals, intended to clean up parliamentary allowances, will mean MP's will no longer be able to employ their children. However, the new proposals won't reach as far as MP's husbands, wives and partners who could still be paid at the tax payers expense!

Plans to tighten up the employment of parliamentary staff came to fruition after reports of how Derek Conway used public money to overpay one of his sons by £13,000 out of the £100,000 allowance that he receives to hire staff. According to disclosures made by the parliamentary authorities, at least a further 22 MP's have their own children on the payroll.

The good news for the children who currently work for their (MP) parents is that the ban would not be retrospective, meaning they can carry on in their current posts - nice work if you can get it!

Welcome to the QBlog

noreply@blogger.com (The Payroll Manager @ QTAC) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:14:00 +0000

Hello to all our subscribers. So why a blog? Well we have created a blog so we can share all upcoming issues that are currently going on here at Qtac and in the payroll world. In it, you'll find up-to-date information, such as current Payroll legislation, Qtac updates and training. We also cover in detail key Payroll topics such as Statutory Payments, Tax Codes, Pensions, CIS, and much much more.

We would love to hear your views

To find specific blog articles, either view the blogs posted below or search by categories using the search box.

Enjoy the Qtac blog page!