A few key points from the December 2021 Employer Bulletin

HMRC have released their Employers Bulletin December 2021. Here's a few of points that you should be aware of:

National Insurance holiday for employers of veterans

If you hired a veteran from April 2021, any earnings of veterans will be eligible for a National Insurance contribution relief. Payments should still be made as normal up until April 2022. However, at the start of the new tax year in April 2022, employers will be able to submit a revised Full Payment Submission to show the employee as the new National Insurance category letter V.

From the tax year 2022, employers will be able to apply the National Insurance category letter V as normal to claim the relief.

Employers using category M National Insurance

Employers should make sure that employees who turn 21, are moved from category M to category A. If an employee turns 21 during the tax month, the category needs to be changed and should no longer be M. Shape automatically does this for you. See our guide on National Insurance Categories.

However, HMRC have stated that some employers are not putting in the employee's correct date of birth. This should always be recorded within the software correctly as the wrong National Insurance category will be chosen and you will be making an error.

Correcting payroll errors - 2020-2021 and future years

Since April 2020, payroll errors now have to be corrected by sending a further Full Payment Submission with the corrections. This used to be referred to as an Earlier Year Update (EYU) but is no longer available. In Shape, this is called An additional FPS and allows users to correct their year to date figures or forget to make someone a leaver from a previous year.

Notifying HMRC when you stop employing people

HMRC have noted that employers are not informing them when they are no longer employing people and are relying on Companies House. This is incorrect and Shape allows you to inform HMRC that your PAYE scheme is no longer active. See our helpful guide on what to do if you need to cease your scheme. You must make sure you P45 all employees and send any final FPS or EPS to HMRC before you close the scheme.

Electronic payment deadline falls on a weekend

Payments to HMRC need to be with HMRC by 22nd. For January 2022, this falls on a Saturday. Don't get caught out and make sure that you make the payment earlier so that is cleared within HMRC's accounts on Friday 21st January 2022.

In Shape, we now have a PAYE Liability screen to help you keep track of payments you have made to HMRC. See our guide Your PAYE Liability for more information.

These are just a few points and you should go and read the Employer Bulletin December 2021 for further information.