P9 tax code notices are used to notify employers of the tax codes to use when calculationg PAYE due from employees’ wages and salaries. In a service availability update published on 17 July 2018, HMRC has confirmed that they are aware of an issue with employers failing to receive P9 files for the tax year 2018-19.

HMRC has now identified the employees affected by this issue and has sent P6 notices in cases where the employer did not receive a P9 notice before the start of the 2018-19 tax year. Affected employers may therefore see an increase in P6 notices dated 11 July 2018.

The basic personal allowance for the tax year starting 6 April 2018 is £11,850 and the emergency tax code will be 1185L. The basic rate limit is £34,500 except for those defined as Scottish taxpayers who have a lower basic rate limit as well as a new intermediate rate.

HMRC has also reported that some PAYE accounts are not showing the latest position. HMRC is urgently investigating this issue and will publish an update when the problem has been resolved. Employers who believe that their account is incorrect and wish to check the current position, should contact the employer helpline.

A new measure to remove the requirement for employers to check receipts for expense claims made by employees using the HMRC benchmark scale rates or overseas scale rates is to be introduced.

The benchmark scale rates can be used by employers to reimburse staff for subsistence expenses when they are travelling on business away from their normal workplace. HMRC lists maximum rates but employers can choose to pay less if they so wish.

The change will be legislated for in Finance Bill 2018-19 and will remove the onerous requirement for employers to check evidence, such as receipts, of the amounts spent when using benchmark scale rates to pay or reimburse qualifying subsistence expenses when employees travel for work.

The new legislation will also place the concessionary accommodation and subsistence overseas scale rates on a statutory basis and the same rules will apply. The overseas scale rates are similar but take into account the cost of subsistence overseas, including hotel accommodation etc, and are calculated on a country-by-country basis.

From April 2019, employers will only be asked to ensure that employees are undertaking qualifying business travel when claiming the benchmark scale rates and / or overseas scale rates. This measure was first announced at Autumn Budget 2017 and should create ongoing administrative savings for many businesses.

The government has named and shamed another 239 employers for underpaying their workers the National Minimum Wage (NMW) or National Living Wage (NLW). The government’s latest “naming and shaming” list covers 22,400 workers who will now receive £1.44 million in back pay. The back pay identified by HMRC was for more workers than in any previous single naming and shaming list. The government has also fined the errant employers an additional record £1.97 million. Employers who pay less than the NMW/NLW must pay back arrears of wages to the worker at current NMW/NLW rates and face financial penalties of up to 200% of the arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker.

The top 5 reasons for NMW/NLW underpayments in this naming and shaming round were:

• Taking deductions from wages for costs such as uniform
• Underpaying apprentices
• Failing to pay travel time
• Misusing the accommodation offset
• Using the wrong time periods for calculating pay.

The largest employer named on the list was the Card Factory, which failed to pay £430,097 to 10,256 workers.

The naming and shaming scheme is now in its fifth year and has so far identified £10.8 million in back pay for around 90,000 workers, with more than 1,900 employers fined a total of £8.4 million. Funding for NMW/NLW enforcement has more than doubled since 2015, with the government set to spend £26.3m in 2018/19.

Acas has published new guidance on the circumstances in which employers should consider suspending an employee. Suspension is where an employee continues to be employed but does not have to attend work or do any work. The guidance makes clear that employers should usually only consider suspension from work if there is either a serious allegation of misconduct, medical grounds to suspend or a workplace risk to an employee who is a new or expectant mother. It also emphasises that suspension should not be used as a disciplinary sanction.

 

The guidance covers:

 

·       Suspension as part of a disciplinary procedure, and the alternatives to a suspension

·       Suspension on medical grounds

·       Suspension due to a risk to a new or expectant mother

·       How an employee should be suspended

·       Pay during suspension

·       How long a suspension should last

·       Communication during a suspension

·       Ending a suspension

·       Options if an employee believes their suspension has not been handled fairly.

Acas has published new guidance for employers on overtime. The guidance highlights the importance of setting out overtime terms in employment contracts or staff handbooks and urges employers to keep detailed records of the amount of overtime worked and how much time off in lieu has been taken.

The guidance covers:

• The different types of overtime, i.e. voluntary, compulsory guaranteed and compulsory non-guaranteed overtime
• Working time limits on overtime
• Pay when working overtime
• Overtime for part-time workers
• The impact of overtime on holiday calculations.