The latest Clay Shaw Butler Money Matters column from the Carmarthenshire Herald

The latest Clay Shaw Butler Money Matters column from the Carmarthenshire Herald.
By Mark Jones, director of Carmarthen-based Clay Shaw Butler chartered accountants and business consultants.

The spotlight in ‘Money Matters’ this week falls on employment taxes as we attempt to bring you up to speed with latest changes in rules and regulations.
Here are some areas of interest -
NIC (National Insurance Contributions) for apprentices under 25:
From 6 April 2016 employer NICs are 0% for apprentices under 25 who earn less than the upper secondary threshold (UST) which is £827 per week (£43,000 per annum). Employers are liable to 13.8% NIC on pay above the UST. Employee NICs are payable as normal.
An apprentice needs to:

• be working towards a government recognised apprenticeship in the UK which follows a government approved framework/standard 
• have a written agreement, giving the government recognised apprentice framework or standard, with a start and expected completion date. 

Employers need to identify relevant apprentices and generally assign them NIC category letter H to ensure the correct NICs are collected.
The proposals exclude apprenticeships which do not follow government approved frameworks, also known as common law apprenticeships. A similar 0% rate of employer NIC already applies for employees under the age of 21.
Employee benefits and expenses changes from 6 April 2016:
From 6 April 2016 a number of changes are introduced relating to the tax treatment of employee benefits in kind and expenses:
There will be a statutory exemption for certain expenses, such as travelling and subsistence expenses, reimbursed to an employee. This will replace the current system where employers have to apply for a dispensation to avoid having to report non-taxable expenses (on forms P11D).
Employers will be able to include taxable benefits in pay and thus account for PAYE on the benefits. However, in order to payroll benefits for 2016/17, employers will have to register with HMRC for the service before the start of the new tax year. Employers will then not have to include these payrolled benefits on forms P11D.
The £8,500 threshold below which employees do not pay income tax on certain benefits in kind will be removed. There will be new exemptions for carers and ministers of religion.
The statutory exemption for reimbursed expenses will mean that all employees will automatically get the tax relief they are due on qualifying expenses payments.
Another option is introduced which allows amounts based on scale rates to be paid or reimbursed, instead of the employee’s actual costs. The rates that can be used are either HMRC approved figures or figures specifically agreed with HMRC in writing.
The approved figures only cover meals purchased by an employee in the course of business travel.
Simplification of the administration of tax on employee benefits and expenses:
The government will introduce a package of measures to further simplify the tax administration of employee benefits and expenses by:

• extending the voluntary payrolling framework to allow employers to account for tax on non-cash vouchers and credit tokens in real time from April 2017 
• consulting on proposals to simplify the process for applying for and agreeing PAYE Settlement Agreements 
• consulting on proposals to align the dates by which an employee has to make a payment to their employer in return for a benefit-in-kind they receive to ‘make good’ 
• legislating to ensure that if there is a specific statutory provision for calculating the tax charge on a benefit in kind, this must be used. 

You can find out more about money matters on the Clay Shaw Butler website (under our news for business section) -
http://www.clayshawbutler.com/news/latest-news-for-business
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