[UK] Employer Bulletin April 2020

On the 24^th of April 2020, HMRC published their Employer Bulletin issue 83 billed as ‘Your route to the latest in payroll news’.  April’s edition has lots of payroll news information for payroll professional and employers.  Although, one of the problems of having a magazine in print (even if it is electronic print) is that it is not always the latest news and some of this are repeats of what we have published already.  We summarise the main contents as follows:

• Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (with links to the updated guidance)
• COVID-19 Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme (more information possibly but the scheme is not yet open for employers to use as per gov.uk information)
• Deferral of VAT payments (due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
• COVID-19 supporting employees (with useful information about issues that may be affecting them during the pandemic such as additional expenses when working from home)
• Benefits and Tax Credits update (particularly interesting is that tax credits will be automatically renewed this year except where there is “high risk”)
• Changes to the Short-Term Business Visitors (STBV) (a reminder that the rules have changed from this tax year and see the PAYE Manual for details)
• Off-payroll working rules in the private sector delayed until 2021/22 (but see the comment about changes in the public sector from the 11^th of May 2020)
• Workplace pensions and COVID-19 – The Pensions Regulator update (and a link to their guidance)
• COVID 19 and salary sacrifice (a frequent question to us)
• Starter checklist changes from April 2020 (see the new version on gov.uk)
• Claiming the Employment Allowance from April 2020 (with the exchange rate on gov.uk, though see our article on this)
• The Official Rate of Interest for 2021/22 (reduced from 2.5 to 2.25%)
• Employer-provided living accommodation (and the removal of the “representative occupier concession from April 2021)
• Scottish Income Tax (a reminder that the new thresholds are effective 11 May 2020)
• Company car changes: ULEV and WLTP (a reminder that there are new ways of allocating the appropriate percentage from 2020/21)
• Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay (a reminder that this new entitlement exists from the 6^th of April 2020 and a link to the guidance on gov.uk)
• Social Security Contributions and COVID-19 (interesting for workers to and from EU / EEA countries)

Global Payroll Association Comment

This edition is a good read for employers and contains plenty of links to further guidance which we have replicated above.  We recommend reading this edition.

On the 24^th of April 2020, HMRC published their Employer Bulletin issue 83 billed as ‘Your route to the latest in payroll news’.  April’s edition has lots of payroll news information for payroll professional and employers.  Although, one of the problems of having a magazine in print (even if it is electronic print) is that it is not always the latest news and some of this are repeats of what we have published already.  We summarise the main contents as follows:

• Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (with links to the updated guidance)
• COVID-19 Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme (more information possibly but the scheme is not yet open for employers to use as per gov.uk information)
• Deferral of VAT payments (due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
• COVID-19 supporting employees (with useful information about issues that may be affecting them during the pandemic such as additional expenses when working from home)
• Benefits and Tax Credits update (particularly interesting is that tax credits will be automatically renewed this year except where there is “high risk”)
• Changes to the Short-Term Business Visitors (STBV) (a reminder that the rules have changed from this tax year and see the PAYE Manual for details)
• Off-payroll working rules in the private sector delayed until 2021/22 (but see the comment about changes in the public sector from the 11^th of May 2020)
• Workplace pensions and COVID-19 – The Pensions Regulator update (and a link to their guidance)
• COVID 19 and salary sacrifice (a frequent question to us)
• Starter checklist changes from April 2020 (see the new version on gov.uk)
• Claiming the Employment Allowance from April 2020 (with the exchange rate on gov.uk, though see our article on this)
• The Official Rate of Interest for 2021/22 (reduced from 2.5 to 2.25%)
• Employer-provided living accommodation (and the removal of the “representative occupier concession from April 2021)
• Scottish Income Tax (a reminder that the new thresholds are effective 11 May 2020)
• Company car changes: ULEV and WLTP (a reminder that there are new ways of allocating the appropriate percentage from 2020/21)
• Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay (a reminder that this new entitlement exists from the 6^th of April 2020 and a link to the guidance on gov.uk)
• Social Security Contributions and COVID-19 (interesting for workers to and from EU / EEA countries)

Global Payroll Association Comment

This edition is a good read for employers and contains plenty of links to further guidance which we have replicated above.  We recommend reading this edition.