Looking ahead: the payroll and pensions landscape of 2018
Wondering what this year could have in store for payroll and pensions? Take a look below at what potential impact may follow the key events and announcements that we know about for 2018 so far:
| Month | What to look out for | What this means | Impact |
| 1st February | Last staging date for auto-enrolment | Applies to PAYE schemes set up by 30.9.17 | All new PAYE schemes since 1.10.17 have duties start date as soon as first worker engaged on FPS |
| 14th February | Deadline for Scottish Budget to be passed | Tax rates confirmed | 5 possible new tax rates: 19%/20%/21%/41%/46% |
| February | White paper on DB schemes | Moves to allow consolidation and new powers for TPR | More upheaval in remaining DB schemes? |
| February | Pimlico Plumbers case at Supreme Court | More clarity on who is a ‘worker’ | Expect more TPR activity on workers who should be auto-enrolled |
| 13th March | Spring statement | ||
| 30th March | Gender pay gap reporting | Deadline for public sector | Data for 31.3.17 ‘snapshot’ must be uploaded by this date |
| 4th April | Gender pay gap reporting | Deadline for private sector | Data for 5.4.17 ‘snapshot’ must be uploaded by this date |
| 1st April | NMW increases | All rates increase | Effective for first pay period that begins on, or after 1.4.18 – check effect on salary sacrifices especially for pensions |
| 6th April | Pension increases | Auto enrolment minimum contributions increase to 2% employer, 5% total | Ideally implement from 1.4.18 if scheme rules allow, so no pro-rating old & new contributions |
| 6th April | Lifetime Allowance changes | Increase to £1.03m | New round of protection |
| 6th April | New RTI data field | Additional field on FPS for student loan plan number | Inserted every time deduction is made, new generic warning msg will indicate if wrong plan in use |
| 6th April | Payrolling of cars | If cars are payrolled, new RTI fields are mandatory | Additional fields must be completed as per the P11D if cars are payrolled – see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sending-car-data-to-hmrc-payrolling-car-benefit |
| 6th April | 5 Scottish rates in force? | Payroll software changes, comms required | Not clear yet what will happen to relief at source tax relief with 19% and 21% rates. New specialist codes SD0, SD1 and SD2 = 21%, 41% and 46% no allowances, SBR remains in use |
| 6th April | Student loan threshold changes | Both Plan 1 and 2 change | Increase of threshold to £25K for plan 2 will see significant annual reduction in payments. Variable interest rate earnings threshold increases to £45K |
| 6th April | Childcare vouchers closed to new entrants | Existing members by 6.4.18 can remain until leave job or scheme | Employees can choose 30-hour free childcare and receive vouchers too. Employees who opt for tax-free childcare have three months to give up vouchers |
| 6th April | Changes to NI on pay in lieu of notice | “post-employment notice pay’ always to be subject to tax and NI whether contractual or not | Increased cost of 13.8% employer’s NI plus potentially 0.5% apprenticeship levy |
| 25th May | GDPR and new UK DP Act in force | Significant changes to data handling and 3rd party contracts | Expect upsurge in Data Subject Access Requests |
| 6th July | New style P11D to reflect OpRA | New calculation of ‘relevant amount’ for some benefits in kind | Particularly impacts cars provided by OpRA with no transitional protection |
| October | Pension Schemes Act 2017 in force | Significant mergers of small master trusts pension schemes due to new regulatory regime | Members must be moved to a new qualifying pension scheme without no break in membership |
Source
This article was originally published on Accounting WEB here
