agency workers

HMRC updates to booklet CWG(2) – transparency or opacity?

Posted by David on June 09, 2015
Expenses and benefits, News articles, Payroll / Comments Off on HMRC updates to booklet CWG(2) – transparency or opacity?

HMRC has recently published its latest annual update to its booklet CWG(2), i.e. the Employers Further Guide to PAYE/NICs, for the year 2015/16.

The CWG(2) does tend to retain the same basic paragraph and section numbering year on year, and it occurs to ET4B how easy it would be for HMRC to flag up or highlight any updated sections (within this and other updated guidance). Indeed it is difficult to fathom why the department does not opt to highlight changes to this (92 page guidance), clearly and directly?

Some of the main changes to the booklet would appear to be as follows (the page and paragraph numbers of the guide are shown in brackets for reference):

  • Details of the new 0% rate applying to certain employer Class 1 NICs, for employees under the age of 21, are now included (page 6, para 4).
  • Some of the examples scenarios potentially applying, when the regular date for employee pay is on a non-banking day, are now elaborated upon (page 9, para 4).
  • Guidance on Lump Sum payments from pension schemes (page 19, para 20) now refers to the more general use of the “Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sums” (UFPLS) terminology, following changes in the rules permitting access to defined contribution pension funds.
  • Guidance on workers supplied by agencies has been developed, in an attempt to reflect some of the new and additional PAYE/NIC obligations for  onshore (page 51, pre-para 110) and offshore (page 60, para 125) agency workers.
  • For PAYE due on employment related securities and similar non-cash payments, the guide now reflects the recent legislative change that PAYE not recovered within 90 days of the end of the tax year now constitutes a benefit in kind (page 82, para 161). The previous 2014 version reflected the old rules where PAYE had to be made good within 90 days of the receipt of the non-cash payment, to avoid the benefit charge.

Tags: , , , , ,