Two new Payroll Updates from HMRC.
At J L Payroll Services, we do all the payroll services work for you so that you can get on with running your company without having to worry about the payroll. HMRC are always introducing changes and updates to the running of payroll services, so, as you would expect we keep up to date with the changes they introduce so that the impact on your payroll is seamless and efficient.
In this article, we look at two of the more recent payroll updates from HMRC: Marriage Allowance and the change in penalty charges for the National Minimum Wage. The information HMRC provides is detailed and can be time consuming and challenging to understand. We hope this article showsyou how we can help you with your payroll. In other words, we do the hard work for you.
Payroll Services and Marriage Allowance
The Marriage Allowance was introduced for use in Payroll calculations from April 2015. It’s actually good news, because it means that married couples could save up to £212 a year by sharing part of their annual income tax allowance.
This is what HMRC has to say about it:
“Where neither spouse/civil partner is liable to income tax above the basic rate, individuals will be able to transfer part of their tax free personal allowances to their spouse or civil partner. For the 2015 to 2016 tax year up to £1,060 will be transferable, representing a saving of up to £212 per year for eligible couples.
Individuals can check their eligibility and register their interest online. Those customers who don’t register an interest will still be able to apply later in the year when the full service opens.
To support the change both the transferor and recipient’s tax codes will have to be amended. This will in turn introduce two new tax code suffixes. They will be:
- M will be used for the spouse/civil partner receiving the transferred allowance.
- N will be used for the spouse/civil partner transferring the allowance.
These new suffixes were not used on tax codes prior to April 2015.?
If you would rather not get bogged down in HMRC’s detail, contact us or call us on 0121 422 0550 for a free initial chat to see if you would like us to provide payroll services for you.
National Minimum Wage – Change in Penalty Charges.
Like any other payroll component, the national minimum wage comes into the payroll services we provide. Currently the hourly levels are:
| Year | 21 and over | 18 to 20 | Under 18 | Apprentice* |
| 2014 (current rate) | £6.50 | £5.13 | £3.79 | £2.73 |
There are penalties that the Government imposes on employers. The Government has increased the penalties that underpay their workers in breach of the National Minimum Wage, and these penalties increased in May 2015.
For pay reference periods starting on or after 26 May 2015 the basis for the maximum penalty has changed from £20,000 per notice to £20,000 per worker.
Further details of the increase in NMW penalties can be found in the NMW law: enforcement policy. You will see that this is a 26 page document!!
So, let us take the strain instead. Contact us or call us on 0121 422 0550 and we’ll do all the hard work for you.
