PAYE not set up by accountant correctly?

[Owl]

Hi all,

My accountant went on hols and sent me a letter to say he had set up my PAYE and docs will be sent from the Revenue in 8 weeks. I havent heard anything (3 weeks later) and do not know what PAYE ref to put on my P45.

Do i need to put a new PAYE ref or can i wait till accountant is back (in 3 more weeks). Company started up on 21st July. I have called Revenue and they say it hasnt been set up and now im not sure who to call/speak with.

Any advice would be great....

[pmeswani]

Hi all,

My accountant went on hols and sent me a letter to say he had set up my PAYE and docs will be sent from the Revenue in 8 weeks. I havent heard anything (3 weeks later) and do not know what PAYE ref to put on my P45.

Do i need to put a new PAYE ref or can i wait till accountant is back (in 3 more weeks). Company started up on 21st July. I have called Revenue and they say it hasnt been set up and now im not sure who to call/speak with.

Any advice would be great....

Have you paid your accountant yet?

[[email protected]]

Hi all,

My accountant went on hols and sent me a letter to say he had set up my PAYE and docs will be sent from the Revenue in 8 weeks. I havent heard anything (3 weeks later) and do not know what PAYE ref to put on my P45.

Do i need to put a new PAYE ref or can i wait till accountant is back (in 3 more weeks). Company started up on 21st July. I have called Revenue and they say it hasnt been set up and now im not sure who to call/speak with.

Any advice would be great....

Strictly speaking if the company is not registered as an employer, then it can't employ anyone. In respect of PAYE/NI deductions (if any) the reference number will need to be quoted when paying over to HMRC.
However, you do get some grace period from the point of employing to becoming registered. Off the top of my head it is four weeks.
HMRC generate the employer reference numbers, so it is not one you can create yourself. Employee records will be tied to the employer reference. So in short, register the company over the phone yourself, or wait.

[Owl]

Hi David,

Thanks for that info - i did pay my accountant £250 in total to get everything set up (company, PAYE, VAT etc) and then he went on hols.

The company has been set up but he also seems to have set up the correspondence address to be his home so i havent received any paye details and also nothing from the Orderline - ie the CDRom to help me sort out my tax etc so im trying to estimate it myself. I wasnt sure when i need to submit my P45 as i have to wait several days to get my new reference from the HMRC.

Can i still pay myself a salary though before this in the next few days?

[[email protected]]

Hi David,

Thanks for that info - i did pay my accountant £250 in total to get everything set up (company, PAYE, VAT etc) and then he went on hols.

The company has been set up but he also seems to have set up the correspondence address to be his home so i havent received any paye details and also nothing from the Orderline - ie the CDRom to help me sort out my tax etc so im trying to estimate it myself. I wasnt sure when i need to submit my P45 as i have to wait several days to get my new reference from the HMRC.

Can i still pay myself a salary though before this in the next few days?

Your accountant will have been appointed as agent, therefore correspondence will automatically be received by him/her. A little odd that it goes to his house, unless he works from home that is?
My recommended course of action would be to pay yourself an advance equivalent to your salary, then catchup next month by paying twice as much salary and deducting the advance. This will bring up to date any PAYE/NI due.
As a matter of interest, what level of salary are you paying yourself?

[Owl]

Hi David

Im paying myself approx 20K a yr, ie 1700 gross each month. It's probably a lot higher than anyone here is paying themselves so potentially i should/could bring it down.

I think ive finally been sent my reference details after hassling the accountant continuously so im going to submit my P45 on Monday. I then want to apply to pay everything quarterly. Am also thinking of handing this all over to somewhere like SJD to sort out all the monthly bits and bobs as it has proved a hassle!

[[email protected]]

Hi David

Im paying myself approx 20K a yr, ie 1700 gross each month. It's probably a lot higher than anyone here is paying themselves so potentially i should/could bring it down.

I think ive finally been sent my reference details after hassling the accountant continuously so im going to submit my P45 on Monday. I then want to apply to pay everything quarterly. Am also thinking of handing this all over to somewhere like SJD to sort out all the monthly bits and bobs as it has proved a hassle!

Hi Owl,

Glad to see you are getting things sorted out. You obviously have already realised that you could potentially reduce your overall tax liability by paying yourself a lower salary and taking more as a dividend.

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