Budget 2013

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The Budget 2013 introduced a new National Insurance for employers. The increase in personal allowance to £10,000 has been brought forward a year, to 2014. There will be very few changes to tax rates.

Employer’s NI (National Insurance) Contributions 

A completely new measure introduced in this budget is the employment allowance.  This will be a deduction in employer’s NIC of £2,000 per year for all businesses and charities from April 2014. It is intended that this will be easy to administer, and the Government will be consulting with stakeholders on the practical aspects. It should be easy to administer, and be done through the normal payroll and RTI (Real Time Information) reporting process.

Currently employer’s NI contributions reduce profit and business tax liability.  If all else is equal, employers will pay £400 more tax (at a rate of 20%). So the true saving for many employers will be £1,600.

Income Tax

The increase in the personal allowance to £10,000 is being introduced a year earlier than anticipated and will come in from April next year. When there is a rise in the personal allowance this usually means the Chancellor lowers the threshold for the higher rate of tax, so that it only benefits people on lower incomes. There have been no changes to income tax rates.

The basic personal allowance is available to people born on or after 6 April 1948. In the current year, 2012/13, it is £8,105; in 2013/14 (as previously announced) it will be £9,440. Once the personal allowance has reached £10,000 in 2014/15, it will then increase in line with inflation based on the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) in future years, starting from 2015/16.

VAT

The annual turnover threshold for VAT registration will go up from £77,000 to £79,000 from April 2013. The deregistration turnover limit will go up from £75,000 to £77,000.

Corporation Tax

The main rate of corporation tax is already scheduled to decrease to 23% from 1 April 2013. From April 2014 it will go down to 21%, and from April 2015 to 20%. There is no change to the rate for small companies, which remains at 20%.

Capital gains tax

The annual exempt amount in 2013/14 will be £10,900, increased from £10,600 in 2012/13. The exemption for most trustees will be £5,450.  There are no changes to capital gains tax (CGT) rates.

Small Company Shareholder/Directors’ Loans

The Government will close three loopholes to counter attempts to avoid the tax charge on loans from close companies to individuals with a share or interest in the company. The measures will have effect from 20 March 2013 and are expected to bring in just under £70m annually in the four years beginning 2014/15.

Later this year the Government will consult on the structure and operation of the tax charge on loans from close companies to their participators (shareholders). If legislation is needed it will be in the Finance Bill 2014.

The full Budget can be accessed at hm-treasury.gov.uk

If you would like any help with budget 2013 changes please contact us.

RTI – Real Time Information

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Real Time Information (RTI) has been introduced to improve the PAYE system by assisting HMRC in gathering critical data on a more frequent basis.  It begins on your first pay date after 6th April 2013, so it is important to act very soon to ensure you can meet the requirements.

This change applies to your business if you have any employees, including those paid below the tax/NIC threshold, those paid just once a year, casual and temporary workers (unless they are paid by an agency). The main changes being implemented are:

  1. Reporting to HMRC: currently your payroll data is reported to HMRC annually on the  Employer’s End of Year Return (P35).  The 2012/13 tax year is the last time this will be done.  From 6th April 2013, employers will report their payroll data to HMRC every time they pay employees,
  2. Employees paid below the tax/NIC threshold must now be added to your PAYE scheme,
  3. It will no longer be necessary to file P46 and P45 starter and leaver forms: however, new starter information is still needed, and the employee must still be provided with a P45 when he/she leaves.

One of the first things you need to do to, before you even begin to consider the impact of RTI on your business, is talk to your existing software provider. It is important that you find out whether or not your software is currently RTI compliant or will be compliant before April 2013. This is when most employers will start operating the new PAYE process.

Collins Accountancy Ltd uses fully compliant software and provides a full payroll service. If you prefer to process payroll in-house please ask for software recommendations, some options are free.

RTI and payroll

The biggest exercise you may need to do is the data cleansing process and what HMRC refers to as ‘payroll alignment‘.

To minimise rejection due to a mismatch with HMRC records, it is important that the payroll records are reviewed for any missing and incorrect compulsory data. Where this data is not available, it must be obtained from the employee. The next step would be to transfer the amendments onto your computer system using your payroll software.

Using Collins Accountancy Ltd as your RTI provider

The introduction of RTI needs to be properly managed.  It is important to know that:

  • once the return has been filed there can be no more changes to the pay run,
  • All of the data needed for new starters must be obtained on a timely basis or the new starter may not get paid (in practice this may put you in a difficult position as you may have a legal and contractual duty to pay your employees).

Get help and advice with RTI

For information on Real Time Information visit the HMRC website and select the link which states ‘I confirm that I want to view guidance on operating PAYE in real time’. HMRC publications, such as the Employer Bulletin are usually worth reading too.

If we can help with any of the above please contact us.