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August 2010 - E-NEWS
Please browse through this month’s articles using the links below and contact us if any issues or questions arise.
- HMRC issues new security alerts
- Revised guidance on fit and proper persons
- Guide aims to make managing employee performance easier
- Late returns grace period to end
- Get ready for new equality act
- PAYE in the spotlight
HMRC issues new security alerts
HM Revenue & Customs has issued a new security warning over an email currently in circulation.
The email, which comes from “HMRC Online services - test@test.com” states that the recipient has one new ALERT message and should log into their Online Account to read the message.
The email contains a link to a fraudulent website that requests the disclosure of personal account information and password.
HMRC stresses that it has not issued the email and asks anyone receiving a copy to forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
HMRC has also said that it is aware of emails being issued to advertise a service where the sender applies for a rebate of National Insurance on the customer’s behalf, usually for a fee.
HMRC is stressing that these companies are not affiliated with HMRC in any way.
LINKS: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/index.htm
Revised guidance on ‘fit and proper’ persons
New guidance on the fit and proper persons test for managers of charities has been issued.
The guidance replaces the original version published in April 2010 and incorporates significant revisions, in particular on which managers charities or Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) should notify HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) about.
The Finance Act 2010 introduced a new definition for tax purposes of charities and other organisations entitled to UK charity tax reliefs, which includes a requirement that to be a charity, an organisation must satisfy the “management condition”.
The new definition applies to Gift Aid with effect from 1 April 2010 and is due to be extended to other charity tax reliefs later this year. It follows that this guidance applies at present only to charities claiming repayments of tax under Gift Aid.
For a charity to satisfy the management condition, its managers must be fit and proper persons. The legislation does not define “fit and proper” and the guidance sets out how HMRC applies this test to those who have the general control and management of the administration of the charity.
HMRC assumes that all people appointed by charities are fit and proper persons unless they hold information to show otherwise. Provided charities take appropriate steps in appointing staff, then they may assume that they meet the management condition at all times unless, exceptionally, they are challenged by HMRC.
However, where HMRC finds a manager of a charity is not a fit and proper person, a charity will not necessarily lose entitlement to the charity tax relief as HMRC can treat a charity as having met the management condition in certain circumstances.
LINKS: HMRC guidance
Guide aims to make managing employee performance easier
New guidance is now available for businesses to help them manage the performance of their workforce more effectively.
With statistics showing that poor performance was raised as an issue in nine out of ten disciplinary hearings*, employment service Acas had produced the How to manage performance guide.
It provides advice on how businesses can set objectives with their employees, including drawing up an effective personal development plan, and is designed to help businesses build engaged, productive teams, improve communication and give employees a clear understanding of where they fit into the business and the skills and competencies needed to fill their role.
John Taylor, Acas chief executive says: “The new guidance from Acas illustrates that managing performance is central to the relationship between managers and employees as well as key to maintaining a productive workplace.
“It also gives employers a chance to monitor performance, develop skills and give employees the chance to express themselves.”
* IRS/XpertHR benchmarking research
LINK: Acas guide
Late returns grace period to end
Businesses are reminded that a seven-day grace period for late employers’ and contractors’ returns will cease from 31 March 2011.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced that the Extra Statutory Concession B46 (ESC B46) would be scrapped next March.
Introduced in 1995, ESC B46 established the principle that penalties would not be charged when employers and contractors submitting tax returns and CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) forms had taken “all reasonable steps” to file their returns on time, but were not able to do so due to unforeseen circumstances such as postal delays.
With the advent of online filing, which is required for P35s and P14s and will become mandatory for Corporation Tax returns from 1 April, HMRC considers the concession redundant because the delays it was intended to address will no longer happen. Returns must therefore reach the department by their due date or incur a late filing penalty of £100.
Confirming the new penalty regime, HMRC said: “Any customers filing a return late will, as now, be able to request us to remove any penalty, if they believe they had a reasonable excuse for the delay in filing. We will consider every case on its own merits. Customers can also appeal against the penalty to a tribunal.”
LINK: HMRC briefing
Get ready for new equality act
Time is ticking away for businesses to review their policies and practices to make sure they are in line with the new Equality Act.
Most of the Equality Act will become law on 1 October 2010, bringing together and replacing previous discrimination legislation. It covers a range of groups that have protected characteristics relating to:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- race
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
The new Act is designed to streamline existing equality law and contains elements that remain unchanged from previous legislation, have been amended or extended or introduced for the first time. Changes have been made in the following areas:
- third party harassment: employers are potentially liable if staff are harassed by people they don't employ, such as external suppliers or customers
- pre-employment health checks: with some exceptions, from October employers should no longer send out pre-health questionnaires with employment application packs
- employment tribunal recommendations: employment tribunals can require employers found guilty of discrimination to take steps to change their policies and practices to prevent further discrimination
- pay secrecy: the Equality Act will make a clause in contracts requiring employees to keep pay secret unenforceable. Employers can still require employees to keep pay rates confidential from others outside the workplace, such as competitors.
In the light of these changes, businesses may need to review and change some policies and practices.
LINKS: Equalities Act summary guides and Acas guide
PAYE could be on course for significant change following the launch of a major consultation.
The consultation, announced by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on 27 July, says that the business processes behind PAYE have remained unchanged since it was introduced in 1944.
The consultation is designed to explore whether there are alternative ways of collecting information that would reduce costs for employers and HMRC and to start a discussion about the collection of information on PAYE at the time employers pay individuals – known as Real Time Information – rather than once a year, and how this could simplify processes.
HMRC believes that Real Time Information would make it easier for people to pay the right tax after a change of job and possibly remove the need for the P45/P46 procedure. It could also offer the prospect of simplifying the PAYE end of year reconciliation process for employers, HMRC and individuals.
In the tax year 2009-2010, PAYE brought in £249 billion in tax and national insurance contributions and £1.1 billion in student loan repayments. It costs HMRC less than 1p for each pound of tax collected.
The consultation will run until 23 September 2010 and if responses are positive, it is likely that a second stage of consultation will begin in the autumn.
LINKS: Consultation
HWB
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Hampshire, SO53 4AR.
