EMPLOYER UPDATE : OCTOBER 2014

 

1. National Minimum Wage (NMW) increase

Please note that as from 1 October 2014 the NMW increases to :

Over 21 – £6.50
18 – 20 – £5.13
16 – 17 – £3.79
Apprentice – £2.73

 

2. Payroll – late RTI submissions

Large employers :

6th October 2014 – All employers with 10 or more employees, and all new businesses set up in the 2014-15 tax year must be up to date with their RTI submissions by this date. Prior to 6th April, no data was required, and no penalties were enforced. From 6th October, all FPS and EPS returns for payments from 6th April must be submitted and in order.

6th October 2014 – Late submission charge for all businesses with 10 employees or more and all new businesses set up in the 2014-15 tax year comes into force, charged on a sliding scale as a percentage of your expected FPS submission value. There will be no charge for one late submission in a tax year (including tax year end, due on 20th April 2015), but each subsequent late submission will be charged as follows:

*This charge will be waived until March 2015

The Following daily interest rate charges will be applied to the outstanding monies owed for all businesses:

• 1 – 3 late submissions will be charged as 1% of the late estimated monetary value
• 4 – 6 late submissions will be charged as 2% of the late estimated monetary value
• 7 – 9 late submissions will be charged as 3% of the late estimated monetary value
• 10 or more late submissions will be charged as 4% of the late estimated monetary value

If you have still not paid a monthly or quarterly amount in full, after six months you will have to pay a penalty of 5% of the amounts unpaid. A further penalty of 5% will be charged if you have not paid after 12 months. These penalties may be charged in addition to the penalties for monthly and quarterly payments described in the previous section and apply even where only one payment in the tax year is late.

Standard charges for late, incomplete or incorrect submissions of tax year end information remain, and are open to all.

Small employers:

Late submission charges for small employers (50 employees or less) come into effect from 6 March 2015.

3. Pension changes – a date for your diary

Please note that I will be holding a seminar on the morning of Thursday 5 March 2015 covering Pension Reform & Auto Enrolment which will set out your Employer obligations and changes you will need to make to your Employees Terms and Conditions. These changes are not going away and by law you cannot decide to just “opt out”, so please come along to find out more as there are large penalties for non compliance. (More info here – http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/what-happens-if-i-dont-comply.aspx ). Invitations will be sent out in due course.

Joy Aubin

October 2014