In the Autumn Budget 2018, some updates were announced with regards to employment taxes. We have summarised some of the key points for employers in this article. The full Summary of the Autumn Budget 2018 can be found on our website.
Off-payroll working
The off-payroll working rules came into effect in April 2017 for the public sector to ensure that those who work through a personal service company (PSC) who would have been
employees if they were directly engaged pay broadly the same employment
taxes as if they were employed. These rules will be extended to the private sector from April 2020.
Employment Allowance
This allowance allows employers to reduce the amount of employer’s Class 1 National Insurance which they pay over to HMRC by up to £3,000 per year. Changes that will be coming into force in 2020/21 will mean that employment allowance is only available to employers with a National Insurance bill in the previous tax year of £100,000 or less.
Employer-provided cars
For 2019/20 the rate of taxable benefit for an employee who has use of an employer-provided car will increase by a further 3%. A new development for the current tax year is an increase in the diesel supplement from 3% to 4%. This applies to all diesel cars (unless the car is registered on or after 1 September 2017 and meets the Euro 6d emissions standard) but the maximum is still 37%. There is no change to the current position that the diesel supplement does not apply to hybrid cars.
Exemption for travel expenses
From April 2019 employers will need to ensure that employees are undertaking qualifying travel to make payments to employees for subsistence. The same process will be applied for concessionary accommodation and subsistence for overseas travel.
If you are an employer and you would like any advice on managing your payroll or dealing with any of the changes that were announced in the Autumn Budget, please do contact us by calling 01623 490 120 or email