PAYE & RTI

PAYE and Real Time Information is now just around the corner for smaller employers.  From 6 April 2014 ALL employers with more than 9 staff will be obliged to report under RTI as well as ALL new payroll schemes irrespective of size.  Very small employers with 1-9 employees will currently still have until April 2016 to adapt but with the scheme now well embedded there would seem to be little point in deferring the inevitable.  HMRC are likely to impose their penalty scheme for late filing of RTI Returns this coming April which can range from £100 for very small employers to £400 for the largest.  HMRC say that they will allow a small degree of tolerance, up to £100 variance between the due amount and the actual amount paid but this is likely to be from small errors only in processing.  Just to add here that the rate of successful appeals against penalties imposed thus far is negligible because they must be deemed "reasonable" which is clearly a concept which HMRC interpret quite narrowly.