Financial
RTI – what does it mean to you?
This month, Tricia Halliday considers some topical points for dental practitioners as employers
T
correct National Insurance number, for each and every employee. If the data for one of your employees does not agree with that on the tax office computer, the submission of the payroll data under RTI may fail, and you may get fined. It will take some time to
he taxman is asking all employers to spring-clean their payroll data to
prepare for Real Time Infor- mation (RTI). Within the next ı8 months, it will become as familiar to you and your practice as PAYE. RTI is a new way of submit-
ting payroll data to the tax office. Instead of sending in the PAYE information annually after the end of the tax year, employers will have to submit the payroll data online on every occasion the payroll is run. This will allow the taxman to understand who is being paid what amounts, and what PAYE is due, on a real-time basis. The details of employees’ pay
will be passed to the Depart- ment for Work & Pensions, to allow the amount of Universal Credits (which are replacing Tax Credits from October 20ı3) paid to workers to be adjusted on a monthly basis. RTI will be compulsory for
all employers and pension providers by October 20ı3. Before payroll data can
be accepted under the RTI system, it must be ‘clean’. That means having an accurate date of birth, full official name (not just initials or nickname) and
check the details of every employee and obtain the missing details, so it would be best to start this task as soon as possible.
Automatic Pension Enrolment delayed for small businesses Dental practices will already know that they have to start enrolling staff into workplace pension schemes shortly. The Government has, however, announced that firms with fewer than 50 employees will get more than a year extra to comply with the new rules. The starting date for auto-
matic enrolment has been postponed from April 20ı4 to May 20ı5 to help small busi- nesses. The enrolment process for bigger employers is still due to begin in October 20ı2. The Government recog-
nise that small businesses are operating in tough economic times, so they are softening the timetable for implementation to give them some additional breathing space. They are still committed to ensuring employees of small businesses get the chance to save, and employers will still have to contribute. The one-year delay will affect the 44 per cent of
employees who are employed in firms employing fewer than 50 people, and this covers almost all dental practices. Such employers will eventually have to contribute at least 3 per cent of their employees’ salary, with the employee adding at least 4 per cent.
An Employer NICs Holiday – what is it? The Government previously announced a new Regional Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) Holiday for New Businesses. Under this scheme, for a limited period and subject to meeting certain conditions, new practices may still qualify for a deduction of up to £5,000 from the employer NICs that would normally be due – for each of the first ten employees they take on. The NICs holiday is
available to new businesses that started during the period from 22 June 20ı0 to 5 September 20ı3. However, as the scheme itself didn’t start until 6 September 20ı0, you can only deduct employer NICs due on earnings paid between then and 5 September 20ı3. You can apply for the NICs
holiday if your practice is located within designated areas of the UK at the time your business starts up. The included countries and regions are: Northern Ireland, Scot- land, Wales, East Midlands, North East, North West, South West, West Midlands, York- shire and Humber. In most cases, there should be little doubt about whether
your practice is located in a qualifying region, but in some instances, your principal place of business may not be clear. If you have more than one surgery, your principal place of business will be where you carry out the greater part of your work. If your business is split equally between surgeries, then the location you use as your administration centre/ main surgery will be consid- ered to be your principal place of business. In most cases, it should
be very clear that your new business is genuinely new. However, if your dental prac- tice has, for example, recently changed ownership or was formerly part of another estab- lished practice, then you’ll need to confirm that it doesn’t fall into one of the excluded categories before going on to apply for the holiday. If your business is eligible,
the NICs holiday will run for ı2 months from the date your business started. During this time, the first ten employees you hire are potentially ‘quali- fying employees’ for the purposes of this scheme. This scheme could save new prac- tices a significant amount of money.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tricia Halliday is a tax partner at Martin Aitken & Co. Tricia is contactable at
ph@maco.co.uk, by telephone on 0141 272 0000, or you can find out more about Martin Aitken & Co by looking at their website
www.maco.co.uk
Scottish Dental magazine 77
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