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 change will be included in the Finance Bill 2018-19.

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 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 to the benchmark scale rates 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 required to ensure that employees are undertaking qualifying business travel. This measure was first announced at Autumn Budget 2017 and should create ongoing administrative savings for many businesses. The new legislation will not stop employers checking employee receipts when reimbursing in this way for their own purposes. The proposed legislation does not apply to payments or reimbursements made under bespoke scale rate payments or industry-wide rates.

Advisory fuel rates are intended to reflect actual average fuel costs and are updated quarterly. The rates can be used by employers who reimburse employees for business travel in their company cars or where employees are required to repay the cost of fuel used for private travel. HMRC accepts that there is no taxable profit and no Class 1A National Insurance on reimbursed travel expenses where employers pay a rate per mile for business travel no higher than the published advisory fuel rates.

Employees can also use the advisory fuel rates to repay the cost of fuel used for private travel, in which case HMRC will accept there’s no fuel benefit charge. The advisory rates are not binding if the employer can demonstrate that the employees cover the full cost of private fuel by repaying at a lower rate per mile.

The latest advisory fuel rates become effective on 1 September 2018. Fuel rates are reviewed four times a year with changes taking effect on 1 March, 1 June, 1 September and 1 December. You can use the previous rates for up to 1 month from the date the new rates apply.

The rates are as follows:

Engine size	Petrol – amount per mile	LPG – amount per mile
1400cc or less	12p	7p
1401cc to 2000cc	15p	9p
Over 2000cc	22p	13p

 

Engine size	Diesel – amount per mile
1600cc or smaller	10p
1601cc to 2000cc	12p
Over 2000cc	13p

Hybrid cars are treated as either petrol or diesel cars for this purpose.

Advisory Electricity Rate

HMRC now accepts that if you pay up to 4p per mile when reimbursing your employees for business travel in a fully electric company car, there is no profit. While electricity is not considered a fuel for tax and NICs purposes, the Advisory Electricity Rate will be published quarterly alongside the other advisory fuel rates.

There are late filing penalties in place for employers that don’t report payroll information on time. The size of the late filing penalties depends on the number of employees within the PAYE scheme.

Number of employees	Monthly filing penalty per PAYE scheme
1 to 9	£100
10 to 49	£200
50 to 249	£300
250 or more	£400

Payments that are over 3 months late can be subject to an additional penalty of 5%.

HMRC has confirmed that having once again reviewed the effectiveness of the risk-based approach to late filing PAYE penalties, they have decided to continue with their same approach for the 2018-19 tax year. This means that late filing penalties will continue to be reviewed on a risk-assessed basis, rather than being issued automatically. The first penalties for 2018-19 will be issued in September 2018.

This means that penalties will not be charged automatically if Full Payment Submissions (FPSs) are filed late but within 3 days of the payment date and there is no pattern of persistent late-filing. This is not an extension to the statutory filing date, which remains unchanged and HMRC has confirmed that employers who persistently file after the statutory filing date but within three days, will be monitored and may be contacted or considered for a late filing penalty.

HMRC will continue to review their approach to PAYE penalties beyond 5 April 2019 and to focus on penalising those who deliberately and persistently fail to meet statutory deadlines, rather than those who make occasional and genuine errors for which other responses might be more appropriate.

Under new gender pay gap regulations that came into force in April 2017, all employers with over 250 employees are required to report their gender pay gap data. The Government Equalities Office (GEO) has now announced that 100% of UK employers identified as being in scope of the regulations (because they have over 250 employees), have published their gender pay gap data, amounting to 10,000 businesses.

The data shows that more than three-quarters of in scope UK employers pay their male staff more on average than their female staff, more than half give higher bonuses to men, on average, than women, and over 80% have more women in their lowest paid positions than in their highest paid positions.

The GEO has also published new evidence-based “What Works” guidance for employers, which includes recommendations to help them improve the recruitment and progression of women and close their gender pay gap. The guidance includes recommendations to:

• include multiple women in shortlists for recruitment and promotions
• assess candidates based on skills-based actual tasks they would be expected to perform in their role, rather than relying only on interviews
• make interviews more structured to avoid unfair bias creeping in, i.e. ask the same questions of all candidates in a predetermined order and format and grade candidates’ responses using pre-specified standardised criteria
• encourage salary negotiation by showing salary ranges, as women are currently less likely to negotiate their pay than men
• introduce transparency to pay, promotion and reward processes.

There are working time limits that state the legal maximum weekly working hours that a person has to work should not exceed 48 hours a week on average. The maximum hours for under 18’s is fixed at no more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week.

The average working hours are calculated over a 17-week period and includes overtime. This means that an employee may work more than 48 hours in some weeks as long as the average over the 17-week period does not exceed 48 hours. A person can choose to work more by opting out of the 48-hour week, but cannot be forced to do so or suffer any detriment by not signing. This is known as an opt-out agreement.

There are some exceptions where employees may have to work more than 48 hours a week on average. This includes the following:

• where 24-hour staffing is required;
• in the armed forces, emergency services or police;
• in security and surveillance;
• as a domestic servant in a private household;
• as a seafarer, sea-fisherman or worker on vessels on inland waterways;
• where working time is not measured and you are in control, e.g. you are a managing executive with control over your decisions.