For Action

Issue 48 of Agent Update, HMRC’s bi-monthly news roundup for tax advisers, is now available.

Items include confirmation that the Revenue has updated 15 out of its 20 toolkits, with the remaining five to be revamped over the next few months. The toolkits cover the 400 most common errors that HMRC see in returns filed by tax advisers.

Issue 54 of HMRC’s Employer Bulletin is summarised below.

P45s

The Revenue’s understanding used to be that employers could not provide parts 1A, 2 and 3 of form P45 to a departing employee electronically.

The department has now received legal advice confirming that the relevant PAYE regulation governs the electronic transmission of information to and from HMRC, not between the employer and employee.

HMRC have published Employer Bulletin 53. Extracts follow.

Reminders for the new tax year

The van benefit charge exemption for zero-emission vans is being phased out between April 2015 and April 2020. From 6 April 2015 a special low rate of 20% of van benefit charge will apply for zero-emission vans. This will increase each year until 6 April 2020 when it becomes the same as the full van benefit charge.

Edition in summary

HMRC have announced new fuel rates for company cars, to apply to all journeys on or after 1 December 2014 until further notice. Employers may use either the previous or new rates for one month from the date of change, and therefore make or require supplementary payments, but are under no obligation to do either. Petrol hybrid cars are treated as petrol cars for this purpose. The amounts can be used for VAT, but employers will need to retain receipts.

Issue 18 in summary

Employer Bulletin 50, the October 2014 edition of HMRC’s bi-monthly update, includes articles on issues including real-time information penalties, PAYE payment deadlines, vans benefit charge, the student loan threshold, and HMRC helplines. Extracts follow.

Employment payment summary

HMRC have made some changes to the employment payment summary (EPS).

Issue 49 of Employer Bulletin, HMRC’s bi-monthly update for employers, has been published.

It features articles issues including the employment allowance, in-year penalties, Revenue payslips, the national minimum wage, universal credit, shared parental leave, and annual tax summaries for PAYE taxpayers.

Employer Bulletin 48 published