EMPLOYMENT-RELATED SECURITIES: NEW GUIDANCE
Ryan Lewis
3 minute read
1 Reply:
Our tax team support clients of all sizes with their employment tax, providing personable, proactive advice that will help you meet your requirements and make the most of your opportunities.
As an employer, you have a lot of tax obligations to consider, including payroll, benefits, expenses, termination payments, employment status/”IR35” and possibly the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS).
Are you managing your employment tax risk effectively? Are you doing all you can to create efficiencies and attract or retain the top talent in your field? And have you considered introducing salary sacrifice arrangements (e.g. pensions) as a way of reducing your employment costs?
Regardless of your business’s size, the fast-moving regulatory requirements of employment tax can make compliance a complex and time-consuming task.
You need to make sure you’re paying the correct amount of PAYE and National Insurance (NI) on your payroll scheme. It’s important to understand how you need to account for each different type of remuneration. And as flexible, wide-reaching benefits schemes have begun to play a key role in attracting, retaining and rewarding top talent – you’ll need to know which elements have to be included on your P11D return, or taxed through your payroll.
That includes company cars, car allowances, health insurance and any other items or services that your employees receive on top of their salary – often referred to as ‘benefits in kind’.
Do you know if you’re eligible for or need a PAYE Settlement Agreement (PSA)? This involves one payment that’s made annually to cover any tax or National Insurance owed on minor, irregular or impracticable expenses or benefits provided for your employees (e.g. staff entertaining/incentives).
We’ll help you find out, and if you’re eligible, this PSA will mean you don’t need to put them in your P11D forms, or through your payroll.
Also, are you making the most of certain HMRC exemptions (e.g. trivial benefits, Long Service Awards, annual parties etc.) as a way of motivating your employees and ensuring you’re not paying tax/NI when you don’t need to? Again, we’ll talk you through this and give you a clear understanding of all your options.
Employment tax is a constant challenge. And HMRC are often throwing significant changes into the regulatory melting pot, such as the proposed changes to off-payroll workers in the private sector.
But you don’t have to go it alone. Our advisors will guide you through the financial compliance maze and risk assess your PAYE and NIC systems. In addition, we’ll help you better understand your costs of employment, and work with you to establish and maintain robust, efficient processes and procedures that could improve your earnings.
We’ve seen a marked increase in activity from HMRC on Employer Compliance enquiries over the past 15-18 months. If you’re about to undergo or are currently subject to such an enquiry, we can help you prepare for the inspection, undertake negotiations with HMRC and bring it to a swift, cost-effective conclusion, either with you or on your behalf.
Equally, if you’ve not had an HMRC enquiry for some time and you want some reassurance on your employer compliance, we can undertake a PAYE/NIC review.
Our support will give you peace of mind and free up your time to do what you do best; running and growing your business.
Benefits packages and remuneration strategies are a hot topic. And with good reason. They help your business stand out, and they could prove to be a deciding factor from a recruitment standpoint. We can advise you on both. And we’ll help you to implement policies that are attractive and compliant.
We can talk you through share-based incentive arrangements, too, including Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI), Company Share Option Plans (CSOP) and growth shares. These schemes reward your people and can be designed to attract and recruit more top talent to keep your business on the front foot.
For four years in a row now, we’ve featured in The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Our people are engaged, they love their work, and they thrive when they’re forming partnerships with businesses just like yours.
“Always great speed of action from the team. Very helpful even when I am slow returning communication. Supportive and helpful and know where to point us if CP don’t have the answers.”
“The team is very friendly and professional and always very responsive. They work around our timelines as much as is possible, and try to be flexible.”
“Met expectations. Very pleased with service received.”
“Proactive, highly competent but also personable.”
“Always full and quick response.”
“Approachable and efficient. Your team manage timelines and keep you informed. I’ve dealt with Helen C.”
“I really like our engagement team and consider them good friends to. However I think there are improvements that could be made. This is worth a proper discussion. The firm needs to mature its offering both commercially and technically.”
“Good communication, timely delivery of work.”
“I would argue that your service is better than average, in particular the use of technology to manage the audit process works well.”
“The team are great – very responsive, always happy to help. Particular shout outs to Tara, Steve, Sky and Ross. It’s a shame that Jake moved on – he had been super helpful over the years. Working with Marina hasn’t been as smooth as working with others at the CP, but I understand the law firm has only been acquired recently.”