The New Tax Year will be upon us tomorrow.
As a test to see what you know about the recent changes in legislation let’s see how many of the following questions you can get right!!
● What is the hourly rate for National Minimum Wage?
(National Minimum Wage, previously £10.42, will increase by 9.8% to £11.44 per hour.)
● If your employee is aged 22 are they entitled to receive National Living Wage?
(Yes – National Minimum Wage previously applied to those that are under the age of 23 and at least of school leaving age. National Living Wage applied to those over 23. However, this will change in April 2024 as National Living Wage will incorporate those aged 21 and over.)
● What is the hourly National Minimum Wage for an apprentice?
(The Minimum Apprentice Wage, previously £5.28 will increase to £6.40 from April 2024)
● What age must an apprentice be to qualify for the Apprentices National Minimum Wage?
(An apprentice must be aged under 19 or if over 19 in their first year of their apprenticeship.
Note that if an apprentice is 19 or over and has already completed their first year of their apprenticeship, then they will be entitled to the National Minimum Wage for their age.)
● What is the National Insurance rate for employees earning an income of between £12,570 to £50,270 a year?
(NI rate for employees earning an income of between £12,570 to £50,270 a year (£1,048 to £4,189 a month) will be reduced from 12% to 10%)
● What is the National Insurance rate for Self-Employed earning profits between £12,570 and £50,270 a year?
(NI contributions are calculated using annual profits.
For profits between £12,570 and £50,270 the NI rate will be reduced from 10% to 8%, and for any profits over £50,270 will be maintained at 2%.)
● What is the weekly rate of Statutory Sick Pay?
(The statutory sick pay rate will increase to £116.75 (previously £109.40).)
● What is the weekly rate of Statutory Maternity Pay?
(The weekly rate for statutory maternity/paternity/adoption pay, shared parental pay and parental bereavement pay will increase to £184.03 (previously £172.48).)
● What is the weekly rate of Statutory Redundancy Pay?
(The maximum weekly amount for employees in England, Scotland and Wales will increase to £700 (previously £643).)
● How many weeks Statutory Sick Pay are you entitled to?
(Eligible employees can claim statutory sick pay for the days they would have normally worked (excluding the initial 3 days), up to a maximum of 28 weeks.)
● True or False? All employers have to re-enrol employees into their workplace pension every 3 years?
(True – Every three years you must put certain staff who have left your pension scheme back into it. This is called re-enrolment. Whether you have staff to put back into your scheme or not, you must complete a re-declaration of compliance to tell us how you have met your duties.)
● What is the basic rate of income tax?
(Basic rate of tax is 20% up to earnings of £37,700)
“Remember, we are only a phone call away if you have any payroll questions or issues, we’re happy to help in any way we can.”
