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Tax experts applaud Revenue’s “pragmatic” PAYE approach
HMRC have pledged to be flexible in their handling of the new in-year PAYE penalties.
The first notices are currently being sent to employers who missed the deadline for submitting PAYE information.
But Revenue officials will eschew automatic fines and instead take a “more proportionate approach, and concentrate on the more serious defaults on a risk-assessed basis”, in line with the tax authority’s view of late-filing fines for self assessment.
The risk-centric method will apply to submissions that were late from 6 March 2015 for small firms and from 6 January 2015 for employers with 50 or more workers.
It applies in addition to the recent announcement that delays of up to three days will not be penalised, and will allow HMRC to concentrate on serious compliance failures and educating employers about their filing obligations, said the department.
AC Mole tax partner Paul Aplin warned that the Revenue’s past focus on penalties had rigged the tax system with “too many tripwires”, and a relaxed line was to be welcomed to “help employers who are trying to do the right thing”.
Colin Ben-Nathan of the Chartered Institute of Taxation applauded the taxman’s “pragmatic approach”, as did the chair of the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, Anthony Thomas, who added, “By not probing every reasonable excuse claim, HMRC are treating taxpayers as honest. This is what the department’s charter says tax officials should do.”
