Accountants: Help Clients Prepare for New Payroll Rules

2019 continues to be a year of change in the UK – with a new Prime Minister, new IR35 off-payroll regulations for the private sector, and employment law changes. Accountants can help their clients prepare for upcoming regulations and ensure payroll and compliance operations are ready before changes are enacted.

IR35 Off-Payroll
If your clients use contractors or personal service companies to staff their business, there are new regulations for the private sector when it comes to classifying contractors and paying tax and national insurance contributions. Talk to your clients now about who they employ and how they currently report taxes for those who are temporary or contract employees. Once you have determined if their contract employees will be affected by the new private sector off-payroll rules, you can ensure the correct filings and tax payments with HMRC. Your clients could face fines and penalties if they do not correctly pay tax and insurance for contract workers, so it is important to get plans in place to make the change beginning April 2020.

Payroll and Tax Changes with new Prime Minister
Now that Boris Johnson is the Prime Minister, there are many pledges he has made that could impact payroll and tax payments. One of the items on his to-do list is to raise the income tax threshold paying 40% tax from £50,000 to £80,000, affecting the most highly paid in the UK. This will impact your clients that currently make between £50 - £80K per year, and is a small percentage of UK residents. Another item on Johnson’s agenda is to increase the minimum income to £12,500 before requiring contributions to National Insurance. This will also impact clients that currently are paying NIC but are under the income of £12,500 right now.

Employment Law Changes
Non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality clauses, and health reforms are just a few of the proposed changes the government is making this coming year. Your clients may have to adjust their payroll and benefits to accommodate new provisions, and preparing now can avoid surprises in the beginning of 2020. Talk to your clients about how they manage their HR and payroll, and prepare them for what might affect their payroll withholding, tax payments and benefits.

Payescape can help you easily manage client payroll and HR with our integrated, cloud-based solutions. You can manage multiple clients on one platform and help integrate their payroll and HR processes to avoid manual errors, compliance issues, and more. If you would like to add more client payroll but need a solution to reduce your resources, we can help! Click here to get started – you can save time, money and resources using an automated, compliant payroll solution.