HMRC eases stance on late PAYE filings

UK businesses with less than 50 employees will now be allowed three days’ leeway by HMRC before being penalised for late filing of PAYE submissions.

HM Revenue & Customs has confirmed that late payment penalties will carry on being reviewed on a “risk-assessed” basis as opposed to being issued automatically.

No change to PAYE filing deadlines

HMRC have confirmed that there will be no change to the actual filing deadlines, which usually means that businesses need to file them actually on or before each payment due date.

HMRC will be closing close to 15,000 PAYE schemes in March 2015 in a bid to prevent unnecessary penalties being issued, for companies that have not filed a PAYE report since April 2013, and as a result, look to appear to have ceased trading.

These company schemes will be written to, advising them about the planned closure and what they should do if they are - or should be - operating PAYE.

Employers with less than 50 employees are also reminded that late filing PAYE penalties will apply from 6 March.

A discussion document has been published by HMRC in order to gauge views by the deadline of 11th May 2015. Suggestions concerning potential improvements to the way in which penalties apply for PAYE payment failure or to meet deadlines for registration or returns will be considered.

How to run your PAYE smoothly and avoid penalties

Of course, it is not always easy running a business and PAYE is something that a good accountant like Omni Chartered Accountants can help you with.

Seeking help with your PAYE affairs may work out more cost-effectively than you may think, especially when you consider the time saving and potential problems that your company could face if deadlines and payments are not made by the dates as set out by HMRC.

For more information, contact us now by clicking here or request a free of charge call back from our website by clicking on the link at the top of this page. 

Do your travel to work expenses stand up to scrutiny?

Although there are differences between tax rules for self-employed and employed people, many of us are able to identify our travel to & from our normal place of work – the commute, as we call it, is not deductible for tax purposes.

However, until recently, HM Revenue & Customs has taken a very narrow and literal view of what is allowable work travel, and what amounts to “commuting” to or from home. The findings of two recent cases, however, could pose problems for you if you have both employment and self-employment.

     1.Commute allowable expenses tribunal case study

In the first case, a doctor worked partly for the NHS, and partly as a self-employed consultant, and travelled by car between his home, the NHS hospital and his private consulting rooms.

After an exhaustive and detailed analysis of his travel patterns, the tribunal eventually diagnosed that all of his travel to and from the NHS hospital, from his home to his consulting rooms, and between the hospital and his consulting rooms was not allowable for tax.

As such, his travel expenses were described as not having been incurred in the furtherance of his business, but rather arose from where he lived.

2. Case study for allowable work travel expenses

In the second case, a self-employed flying instructor claimed to be operating from his home and that his travel to the two airfields where he gave lessons amounted to business travel in the course of his trade.

The Tribunal decided that both airfields were his regular places of work and that no deduction was due for his travel to or from them.

Would your work travel arrangements stand up to inspection?

Both cases point to the fact that a person’s business or employment base is not always where they think it is. They demonstrate that HMRC and the Tribunals are making a greater distinction than in the past between travelling in the course of a business, and travelling to a place where their work is regularly carried out.