SJD Advice on RTI Changes to payroll

[d000hg]

Thanks for clearing that up Nathan, it seems a fairly crucial point in the whole discussion.

[Clare@InTouch]

Seems a weird thing to do to me. Almost like they just want to minimise the work they have to do, which surely could be mostly automated?

I'd have to double-check but I'm fairly sure my accountant said they'd basically just handle all this nonsense without me having to do anything much.

Just to confirm that's the case - business as usual as far as clients are concerned, just keep following the schedule we provide and make the PAYE payments as we advise.

[Scrag Meister]

Does it really have to be that precise? To the day?

Surely it depends, give or take a day or 2?

Generally I currently aim for 15th of each month but sometimes it may be 12th/13th or 17th.

[ambient]

Should all SJD customers have received the email about this? I ask, since i'm yet to receive mine!

[philip@wellwoodhoyle]

Surely not paying any payroll for 11 months of the year would jeopardise earnings related state benefits, such as SSP, SMP, SPP, etc if you wanted to claim them mid-late tax year as you'll not have had any earnings for the few months prior?

[SimonMac]

[smug mode]

As we do our own books, I have been declaring to HMRC in real time from day one anyway

[/smug mode]

[Greg@CapitalCity]

Surely not paying any payroll for 11 months of the year would jeopardise earnings related state benefits, such as SSP, SMP, SPP, etc if you wanted to claim them mid-late tax year as you'll not have had any earnings for the few months prior?

Hmmm, thats a good point.

[tractor]

...

I really don't understand all the kerfuffle about this. If your accountant does this currently, the only difference is a few mins per acct setting it up ONCE for the co and ONCE for each of the (probably) 1 or 2 emps. After that, the only difference is that an online calculation and submission is made, a few mins per month.

The old way, it was excusable to pass all this off to an acct so that you don't have to keep abreast of tax and ni tables and tax codes and actually understand how to apply them. Now, all you need do is download a bit of FREE sw (I guess most of us have less than 9 employees after all), set an account or two up (equiv to the old P11) and use it to calculate a payment and deductions once a month, click the button and the submission is done.

I can't actually see any downsides to this and the biggest upside is that anyone even with minimal payroll knowledge can set it up and operate it and then demand a discount from their accountant because they are not now needed to undertake this gargantuan effort

From the acct pov, yes it's a pain ONCE then it's no different than it used to be except it's probably quicker.

If it's more difficult than this and I have missed something, please let us know!

edit: Also, I meant to mention, aren't there some odd NI implications if you pay yourself 6 mthly or annually where you pay a lot more NI? I can't remember exactly what though.....

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

It's a bit more than that, tractor

- the actual filing every pay period on line, at the very least it's a couple of extra clicks, but there is scope for gateways being down, HMRC disputing reciept, data set being wrong etc.

- HMRC going off half cock when they get submissions - they are trying to automate all comings and admin, and I think we will see a flood of coding problems.

- timing of submissions - more a issue if accountants do filing for clients, it use be on or before salary is paid

- data validation and check each pay period, eg leavers, joiners, salary changes, hours changes - again more a communication issue where accountants are doing payroll submission for clients.

- HMRC penalty powers. Light touch? Full in? Who knows...

[tractor]

It's a bit more than that, tractor

- the actual filing every pay period on line, at the very least it's a couple of extra clicks, but there is scope for gateways being down, HMRC disputing reciept, data set being wrong etc.

- HMRC going off half cock when they get submissions - they are trying to automate all comings and admin, and I think we will see a flood of coding problems.

- timing of submissions - more a issue if accountants do filing for clients, it use be on or before salary is paid

- data validation and check each pay period, eg leavers, joiners, salary changes, hours changes - again more a communication issue where accountants are doing payroll submission for clients.

- HMRC penalty powers. Light touch? Full in? Who knows...

Yes, but with respect we are not generally talking about payroll for 100's here, from a contractor perspective, it will be far easier than it used to be with manual tables and all. And the software is free! Different from an accountant perspective granted but given that at some point their teething problems will be ironed out it shouldn't be any more ummmm taxing than filing a VAT return online. For most contractors there won't be much leavers, joiners and variable salary malarkey and if anyone has a negative tax code because of a co car then they probably do need an accountant