IRIS GP Payroll Release Notes.

Transcription

1 IRIS GP Payroll Release Notes

2 Dear Customer Welcome to your software update for April You must install this update prior to completing any year end procedures for 2010/11, and before commencing any payrolls for the year 2011/12. As well as the required legislative updates, this version of IRIS GP Payroll also includes some new features and enhancements. These notes provide information on all the changes, including: new Employer DEO Schedule changes to NI calculations new wizard for Additional Statutory Paternity Pay changes to the childcare voucher scheme If you have any comments to help us to improve our software, services or documentation, please contact us using the Product wish list on IRIS Online for GP Practice Managers at New legislation this year No amendments have been made to your software for this change in the law, but we have included a summary for your information. In-Year Forms Starting from 6th April 2011 all employers must file the following in-year forms online: P45 Part 1 for leavers P45 Part 3 for new employees P46 for new employees who don t have a P45 P46 (Pen) for new pension beneficiaries P46 (Expat) for employees seconded to work in the UK from abroad All of these forms can be sent from IRIS GP Payroll except the P46 (Pen) and P46 (Expat) in the unlikely event that you need to send either of these forms you can use HMRC s Online Return and Forms - PAYE service. 2

3 Contents Change to NI calculation... 4 Employer DEO Schedule... 5 Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (ASPP)... 7 Childcare Vouchers... 9 Minor Amendments

4 Change to NI calculation Starting in the 2011/12 tax year, NI will be calculated slightly differently. Currently, both employees and employers pay NI on earnings over the Earnings Threshold (ET). After this change takes effect, the threshold will be different for employees and employers. The employee s threshold is known as the Primary Threshold (PT) and the employer s threshold is known as the Secondary Threshold (ST). The Primary Threshold may be the same as the Secondary Threshold but it doesn t have to be, so the calculation of NI must treat them separately. Example: In tax year 2010/2011 John Brown earns 210 per week; his NI letter is A. He pays NI at 11% on earnings above the Earnings Threshold (ET, currently 110). So John pays 11% of ( ) = John s employer, XYZ Ltd, pays NI at 12.8% on earnings above the ET, so they pay 12.8% of 100 = In tax year 2011/2012 the Primary Threshold is and the Secondary Threshold is The percentage deduction for employees on NI letter A is 12% and for employers is 13.8%. John will pay 12% on his earnings above the PT, i.e. 12% of ( ) = 8.52 XYZ Ltd pay 13.8% on John s earnings above the ST, i.e. 13.8% of ( ) = IRIS GP Payroll will automatically start using the new NI calculation method at the beginning of the 2011/2012 tax year. If you use Previous year s payrolls to change the payroll year, IRIS GP Payroll will use the correct NI calculation method for that year. Other areas of the program that are affected: Recalculate with Correct NIC code (accessed by clicking the Correct Errors button then the To recalculate payroll with a different NIC code button) This function will use the new NI calculation method if the current tax year is 2011/12 or later Tab 12 - Tax/NI Parameters on the Setup Options screen The grid showing employee and employer NI rates has been removed. There is a new button which you can click to view the new Employee and Employer NIC Rates screen. Summary of rates of Income Tax, NIC, SSP and SMP report (produced from the Print a Summary button on the Setup Options screen s Tax/NI Parameters tab) Deduction Sheets (P11) report References to the Earnings Threshold have been replaced with Primary Threshold 4

5 Employer DEO Schedule The Child Maintenance Service (CMS, also known as the Child Support Agency or CSA) have introduced the requirement for employers to provide information about their employees who pay Deduction of Earnings Orders. The new Employer DEO Schedule contains information about all employees who currently have a DEO, including name, NI number and the DEO amount paid. If the amount paid is less than the standard amount (i.e. the Amount of Deduction specified in the employee details) the Employer DEO Schedule will contain reason codes describing why the employee is paying less than usual (e.g. she may have been on sick pay). The Employer DEO Schedule can be produced as a report or it can be produced as a CSV file which can be sent to the CMS electronically. Set Up Before you can create the Employer DEO Schedule you need to enter the practice s CMS Reference Number. Click on Setup/Options then click the 3-Practice PAYE Details tab. You may also have Employee CSA Reference Numbers for individual Deduction of Earnings Orders. These are only issued occasionally so you may not need to enter any. To add an Employee CSA Reference Number to an existing DEO click Change Employee Details, choose the employee, click OK, click Pay Details, click Attachment Orders, then select a Child Support Agency DEO and click Edit. 5

6 Produce the Employer DEO Schedule To create the Employer DEO Schedule, click Print Output/ Export Data then click on the Attachments tab. Select the format, either Print report or Create CSV file, then choose the month you want to produce the schedule for and click OK. The Employer DEO Schedule screen will open displaying all the employees who currently have DEOs. If any employees have paid less than the standard amount in the selected month the screen will show at least one reason code (the second reason code is only required if the employee has more than one reason for not paying the full amount, e.g. she was off sick and then started maternity leave in the same month). You need to check the reason codes that the system has assigned, change any which are not correct, then tick the Confirmed box for each. If you chose to produce the schedule in CSV format, you can browse to the location where you want the file to be saved. Click OK to create the file. At the time of writing the CMS have not advised how the file should be sent to them, but you may be required to it or upload it via the internet for example. If you chose to print the schedule, click OK to print the report on your currently selected printer. 6

7 Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (ASPP) For babies due on or after 3rd April 2011, fathers may be entitled to Additional Statutory Paternity Pay and Leave (ASPP and ASPL). The old Statutory Paternity Pay is now referred to as Ordinary Statutory Paternity Pay (OSPP); the rules for OSPP have not changed. Entitlement to ASPP also applies to parents of adopted babies, which means a woman could be entitled to ASPP, although for simplicity the parent is referred to in this document as the father and he. By introducing ASPP the government hope to encourage fathers to share responsibility for childcare in the baby s first year. The father will be entitled to take over part of the mother s entitlement to pay and leave. For example, the mother is entitled to 39 weeks SMP and 13 weeks unpaid maternity leave; if she decides to return to work after 30 weeks the father can take the remaining 9 weeks of her SMP period as ASPP and the following 13 weeks as unpaid ASPL. The parents cannot both be receiving statutory payments or be on statutory leave at the same time, i.e. the mother must finish her SMP before the father can start ASPP. Ensuring that the parents comply with this rule is partly the responsibility of their respective employers. Your responsibility as the father s employer is to keep documentation, certified by the mother or her employer, of the mother s SMP period and date of return to work. For detailed information see the E19 handbook (Employer Helpbook for Ordinary and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay) published by HMRC. IRIS GP Payroll includes a new wizard which allows you to set up ASPP in a very similar way to the existing SMP wizard. The calculation of ASPP recovered and compensation is automatic, as it is for SMP and other statutory payments. Payslips, P32 reports, P11 Working Sheets and other forms and reports include any ASPP payments along with other statutory payments. Configuring ASPP To configure ASPP for an employee, open the Temporary Adjustments screen and double-click in the SMP, SPP, SAP field for that employee, this opens the Wizard for Statutory Payments. Select Allocate Additional Statutory Paternity Pay and click Next. The next screen has options for Setup, Calculate and Payments screen. If you have not yet configured ASPP for this employee only the Setup option will be enabled. Click Next. The next screen allows you to enter the employee s average monthly salary, which you must calculate in the same way you do for SMP (see the Help screen for more information). Click Next. 7

8 The following screen allows you to enter the information that defines the employee s ASPP and/or ASPL periods. If the employee is not entitled to ASPP and will only be taking unpaid ASPL, tick the Leave only box then enter the ASPL start date and the date the employee will return to work. If the employee is entitled to ASPP you need to enter the start and end dates for ASPP as well as the date the employee intends to return to work (a gap between the last day to have ASPP and returning to work indicates that the employee is going to take ASPL after the ASPP period has finished). Click Next. The next screen allows you to amend the return to work date and start the calculation process. Click the Calculate button. The following screen displays the amount of ASPP calculated, if any, plus the amount due for any normal working days in the month. You can also enter up to 10 KIT days as you would for SMP. If the employee is not in the NHS pension scheme, click Finish to return to the Temporary Adjustments screen. If the employee is in the NHS pension scheme click Next to go to the following screen. The final screen displays the amount of pensionable pay IRIS GP Payroll has calculated. Click Finish to return to the Temporary Adjustments screen. Continuing ASPP or ASPL As with other statutory payments, you must continue to use the ASPP wizard each month to calculate any ASPP due (or to record zero pay due to unpaid ASPL) for the duration of the ASPP and/or ASPL period. 8

9 Childcare Vouchers From 6th April 2011 the limit on the amount of exempt income for childcare vouchers is restricted, for employees whose earnings are liable to tax at the higher or additional rate. The amounts that you can provide to employees joining the scheme from 6th April are as follows: Basic Rate 20% ( ) Higher Rate 40% ( ) Additional Rate 50% ( ) Weekly Monthly Annual Any employees already in a childcare voucher scheme by 5th April 2011 will not be affected. The Childcare Vouchers screen has been amended to incorporate this change: For employees who are already in the childcare voucher scheme, untick the box marked Employee Joined the childcare voucher scheme after 5 April 2011 (it will already be un-ticked if the employee is currently receiving an amount of childcare vouchers). The exempt amount will be set to the maximum which is currently 243 per month. If the employee is new to the childcare voucher scheme, leave the box ticked and select the employee s earnings band. IRIS GP Payroll will set the exempt amount accordingly. You can enter a voucher amount that is greater than the exempt amount if you wish, but the tax and NI relief only applies to the exempt amount. 9

10 Minor Amendments P46 Option C Previously when you transmitted a P46 with the option C selected any tax code was accepted; from 5th April 2011 HMRC will only accept tax codes BR and 0T. A new screen has been added to IRIS GP Payroll: when sending a P46, if you choose option C you are asked to select one of the valid tax codes. The employee s details are amended automatically. When entering details for a new employee, if you choose to enter the Cumulative Figures and you indicate that the employee has completed a P46 rather than giving you a P45, there is a new option on the Emergency Tax Code screen which allows you to specify option C with tax code 0T (previously you could only select tax code BR). Paper P14 no longer required Since electronic filing of year-end information is now compulsory it is no longer necessary to print P14 forms, therefore the option to print P14s has been removed from IRIS GP Payroll. HMRC no longer stock the printable versions and only supply manual versions to the very small minority of companies who are exempt from electronic filing. Incentive payment options no longer required Over the last few years HMRC have offered tax-free incentive payments for employers who filed their year-end submissions online. Electronic filing is now compulsory, so these incentive payments are no longer available. References to the incentive payments have been removed from the software. 10

11 Software available from IRIS IRIS GP Payroll Simple, accurate and reliable payroll software which handles all requirements of the NHS Pension Scheme IRIS GP Accounts Easy to use, flexible accounts software written by GPs and tailored for NHS general practice IRIS HR Manager The easy way to keep employee data up to date IRIS Backup The easiest, most secure way to back up and restore your business files HMRC online service helpdesk HMRC employer helpline HMRC new employer helpline (for new business) Support IRIS Healthcare Solutions PO Box 33, Wigan, WN5 0FS IRIS, IRIS Healthcare Solutions and IRIS GP Payroll are trade marks. IRIS Healthcare Solutions is a trading name of IRIS Payroll Software Ltd which is part of the IRIS Group. IRIS Payroll Software Ltd All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows Vista and Windows logo are registered trade marks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trade marks are the property of their respective owners.