Changes have been made to the PAYE regulations which will now allow employers to provide P60 information to employees electronically. The changes come into effect for the tax year 2010-11 onwards.

Employers may wish to agree with employees in advance whether they wish to receive their P60 electronically. If the P60 is provided electronically, the employer will need to provide secure facilities for employees to view and print their P60. If this is not possible, an electronic P60 can be issued to an email address that has been provided by the employee. If employees do not have access to a computer the employer must continue to provide a paper version of the P60.

Any substitute P60s which arise from the output of an electronic P60 must carry the text ‘this is a printed copy of an eP60’. This must be at the top of the form near to the form title – P60 End of Year Certificate and in an acceptable font size, no smaller than point 10.

Duplicate P60s
Duplicate P60s for the tax year 2010-11 onwards, irrespective of whether they are provided on paper or electronically, will no longer need to carry wording to show that it is a duplicate.

The Budget announced a welcome break for new businesses outside the South East, that of a National Insurance Holiday giving new companies the chance to take on employees, the first 10 of which will not have employers NIC due for the first 12 months, giving a potential saving of £50,000 BUT and it is a big but for new businesses. The Budget statements have been released and alluded to the fact that new businesses from 22 June 2010 would potentially qualify but the scheme itself was unlikely to be ready until September – so immediate confusion caused – qualifying companies from 22 June but scheme not ready until September so many new businesses are thinking that the NIC holiday will apply to them if they set up business after 22 June – yes and no – not all companies will qualify (exclusions on fishing, agriculture and mining already mentioned) but the NIC holiday CAN’T start until the scheme officially starts, so even if you set up a company (and are trading) in the period 22 June to official scheme start up you CAN’T apply the NIC holiday, you need to operate the “normal” NIC rules and this may catch out a lot of new businesses. The NIC holiday will start when the scheme officially starts whether it be September of another future date. It is important that companies do not fall foul of this rule as penalties are drachonian. If you are in any doubt contact the employment tax expert

Well we have a date for the emergency Budget and that is 22 June 2010, but what can we expect:

• Increases in employees national insurance contributions, but not employers NIC
• Increase in the rate of Capital Gains Tax to probably 40%
• VAT rate to increase from 17.5% to 20%
• Increase in the level of PAYE/NIC compliance checks
• Increase in the personal allowance level to nearer the £10,000 mark
• A crack down on tax evasion, albeit HMRC cannot seemingly tell the difference between this and tax avoidance – the latter being perfectly legal

The Government has indicated that most of the initial debt reduction will come from spending cuts rather than tax rises but we would recommend that you review all your employer compliance procedures with the help of an employment tax expert as they will be seeking extra revenue from basically whereever it can get it from – so call us today on 0800 917 9176 and see how we can save you money