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HMRC reminds employers of PAYE and CJRS deadlines

18 August 2020: ICAEW’s Tax Faculty provides a rundown of some of the latest updates for employers from HMRC, including a reminder that August's deadline for electronic PAYE payments is a Saturday, so organisations need to double check payments will clear in time.

HMRC’s Employer Bulletin for August 2020 contains lots of useful information, including reminders related to PAYE payments, coronavirus support schemes and reporting of disguised remuneration loans.

PAYE

As the August PAYE electronic payment deadline (22 August) falls on a Saturday HMRC reminds employers that they need to ensure cleared funds are received by 21 August, unless funds can be transmitted by faster payment to clear on the payment deadline.

The Bulletin also highlights that payments made to HMRC by corporate credit card incur a surcharge which goes direct to merchant acquirers, card schemes and card providers. From 1 November 2020 this surcharge will also apply to corporate debit card payments, so employers may wish to consider an alternative payment method.

HMRC has also confirmed that the PAYE expenses and benefits service, which is used to report P11D, P11D(b) and P46(car), is being revamped to make it more user friendly. Employers with five to 250 employees can contribute to gov.uk’s design process by signing up here.

Coronavirus support schemes

The Bulletin includes a number of reminders about the CJRS scheme, including that:

  • From 1 August, CJRS grants cover 80% of furloughed employee’s salaries, but not employer (secondary) NIC or pension contributions.
  • From 1 September, CJRS covers 70% of wages up to a cap of £2,187.50 for the hours furloughed employees do not work. Employers need to fund the remaining 10% up to the cap of £2,500, plus employer NIC and pension contributions.

HMRC also takes this opportunity to reiterate that workplace pension contributions must continue to be paid for furloughed employees.

The CJRS will close on 31 October and HMRC has told ICAEW that the final date for submitting a claim will be 30 November 2020. The first iteration of the scheme, before flexible furloughing was introduced, closed to claims on 31 July.

The Bulletin also provides information on the job retention bonus (JRB) which allows employers to claim a one-off payment of £1,000 for every employee for whom they received a grant under CJRS and who remains continuously employed until the end of January 2021.

To be eligible the employee must have received earnings in November 2020, December 2020, and January 2021, and been paid an average of at least £520 per month. Employers can claim the bonus after filing PAYE information for January 2021 and the bonus will be paid from February 2021.

HMRC also uses the Bulletin to remind employers that redundancy pay, notice pay and compensation for unfair dismissal must be based on an employee’s normal pay rather than their furlough pay.

Disguised remuneration

The Bulletin also reminds employers whose current or former employees have outstanding disguised remuneration loans that are subject to the loan charge have until 30 September 2020 to report the details of their loans.

You can receive HMRC's Employer Bulletin by signing up here. You do not need to be an employer to sign up.