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Direct Selling Campaign – just a month to go
The Direct Selling Campaign, as included on our news feed in September 2012, will close on 28 February 2013.
This campaign is focused on those who are selling directly to customers such as door to door for example. You might call yourself an agent, a consultant, a representative or perhaps a distributor and your selling may involve leaving brochures for later collection, demonstrating products in the home or at a party organised by the homeowner.
Even if you only sell to friends and family, it makes no difference. Tax may still be due on any earnings you generate.
Your disclosure and the payment of any tax must be made by 28 February.
HMRC are writing to direct sellers to make them aware of the campaign now. After the deadline, HMRC will start to make contact with those who did not come forward, where HMRC believe that they owe tax.
On 7 February, HMRC (@HMRCgovuk) is holding a live Twitter question and answer session between 1pm and 2pm.
If you know you need to make a disclosure under the Direct Selling Campaign, then complete the Direct Selling Campaign disclosure form today. If you need any assistance or more advice on your own circumstances then please contact us.
Real time information: steps to take now
From April 2013, employers will be changing the way they tell HMRC about payments and associated tax deductions made to employees. From this date employees will include all students and casual staff as the relevant procedures for those types of staff will be withdrawn. Payments to lower paid, temporary staff and irregular staff will also need to be reported.
With the start of RTI being just two months away, have you considered your obligations under this?
What should you do now?
- You should start by making sure that if you use a payroll software, it is compliant with RTI. If you prepare your payroll manually, you will need to find a software solution. Alternatively, you could consider outsourcing your payroll, this may free up valuable time to run other aspects of your business. We run payrolls for many of our clients using well informed staff so consider asking us for a quotation.
- You need to check your data is correct. You should review your records and ask employees to confirm that the data you hold is correct. This will include:
Full name i.e. “Jonathan Martin Clarke” not “Jon M Clarke”;
National Insurance Number;
Gender;
Date of birth; and
Address.
- If you pay your employees by BACS using your own Service User Number (SUN) you must ensure that your software includes the RTI cross reference or hash field. If you pay without your own SUN you will not need to do this. More information here.
- As soon as your payroll software supports the facility, you will need to start to include new information such as hours worked for example. More information here.
Consider using the HMRC Business Readiness Checklist to help you make sure you have covered everything.
HMRC regularly provide RTI updates on their news feed on the website and we will continue to include updates on our own news feed. If you have not already done so, take a look at our .
Your contact at Edwin Smith can assist you with questions you may have.
HMRC changes employers PAYE accounts office
HMRC have recently written to employers about the payment of PAYE/NIC liabilities from 6 April 2013. The letter notifies the employer about a change in the payment details, which means that all employers (with effect from the month 1 2013/14 payment) will now make payment to the Accounts Office Cumbernauld account.
Employers should not change the account office details until they make the month 1 tax payment for 2013/14 but should make sure that any memorised transactions within their banking arrangements are amended accordingly from this payment.
The specific account details are included on the letter sent to employers or can be found on the HMRC website.
PAYE code notices – ‘autocoding’
“Auto-coding” was introduced for Self Assessment tax returns for 2010-11 and uses the information of other income and deductions from the submitted tax return to calculate and issue a revised tax code automatically for the current tax year.
The process is intended update the tax codes sooner ensuring that you pay the right amount of PAYE tax throughout the tax year.
The types of income, allowances and reliefs which can be included in your PAYE tax code are listed on the HMRC website.
It is possible to request that HMRC do not attempt to collect tax due on other income sources through the PAYE code when submitting the self assessment tax return.
In some cases, more than one PAYE code will be issued throughout the year, which can happen when the code is reviewed manually by HMRC. Commonly individuals who receive benefits in kind, or who have underpaid tax in previous years may have manual adjustments made to their PAYE tax code.
Your accountant will not automatically receive a copy of your PAYE coding notice when issued, and so if you have received a new PAYE code and are unsure whether the entries are correct or would like to make a change to entries, please contact us for guidance.
Dates and deadlines: January 2013
1 January: Corporation tax payment for company not within the instalment regulations: year ending 31 March 2012
5 January: End of month 9 for PAYE
7 January: Start of Child Benefit High Income Charge
7 January: Online VAT return due to be filed and electronic payment of VAT due to be cleared into HMRC bank: quarter ended 30 November 2012
11 January: Direct debit VAT payment will be taken: quarter ended 30 November 2012
14 January: Submission of form CT61: quarter ended 31 December 2012
19 January: CIS monthly return deadline: month ended 5 January 2013
19 January: Cheque payments due for PAYE/NI, student loan and CIS: month ended 5 January 2013
22 January: Electronic PAYE/NI etc payments to be cleared into HMRC bank: month ended 5 January 2013
31 January: Deadline for submission of self assessment tax returns for year 2011/12 and payment of tax (balancing payment 2011/12 and 1st payment on account 2012/13)
31 January: Company tax return CT600 due to HMRC: years ending 31 January 2012
31 January: Company accounts (Private Limited Co) due to be filed: years ending 30 April 2012
31 January: Company accounts (Public Companies) due to be filed: years ending 31 July 2012
1 February 2013: Corporation tax payment for company not within the instalment regulations: years ending 30 April 2012
