How ICAEW’s Tax Faculty has influenced policy and practice for employment taxes and NIC.
The faculty also publishes guidance:
- as TAXguides;
- articles in Tax news, which is highlighted in our weekly TAXwire that is circulated to subscribers (my.icaew.com/preferences); and
- in TAXline, which, 30 years since inception, continues its tradition of providing members with around two dozen practical points every month, as well as articles.
- Matters on which the faculty has published guidance following correspondence with HMRC include:
- the income tax and NIC impacts on employees displaced by the coronavirus pandemic (TAXguide 08/21);
- the interaction between the NIC element of the coronavirus job retention scheme and employment allowance (HMRC clarifies interaction between EA and NIC element of CJRS grants); and
- regarding off-payroll working:
(i) determining whether a client is ‘small’ (TAXguide 15/21);
(ii) clients that are trusts (TAXguide 16/21); and
(iii) cross-border working (TAXguide 19/21).
The faculty makes its representations partly direct to ministers, HM Treasury and HMRC and partly through its membership of HMRC’s consultation forums, such as:
- Employment and Payroll Group;
- IR35 Forum;
- Joint Forum on Expatriate Tax and NIC;
- Statutory Payments Consultation Group;
- Collection of Student Loans Group; and
- Pensions Industry Stakeholder Forum.
Representations may be in response to invitations from government to comment, which may or may not be public, but many are of the faculty’s own volition.
Some submissions are published, for example, representations to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, in advance of Autumn Budget 2021 (ICAEW REP 95/21), which in 2021 contained several employment taxes issues, and briefings to MPs on Finance (No.2) Bill 2019-21 on termination payments (ICAEW REP 37/21) and construction industry scheme reforms (ICAEW REP 38/21).
Other recommendations submitted by way of unpublished representations in 2021 have included how the law should be updated to reflect where people work in the modern world, tax and NIC liabilities following revision of employment status determinations, and process issues such as code numbers, week 53/54/56 underpayments, forms P11D and the starter checklist.
Some ETNICC members have also presented webinars, and the faculty has published the questions and answers from the webinars, including those not answered in the webinars owing to lack of time, (for example TAXguide 01/20 off-payroll working Q&As).
If you are interested in any aspect of employment taxes and NIC (including NIC for the self-employed) and associated matters such as pensions, statutory payments, student loans, employment status and other payroll-related issues, whether technical or procedural, including the software side, and you would like to get involved in this work, then find out more by contacting the committee Chair, Steve Wade (swade@uk.ey.com) or the committee Manager, Peter Bickley (Peter.Bickley@icaew.com). Do please also contact Peter Bickley if you would like to get involved with our work on other aspects of the tax system.