It doesn’t feel like a whole year since the stress of RTI going live, but it is coming up to the end of March and Year End is upon us again!
Although RTI has made the Year End process much simpler, or so we think, there are still steps to take in the run up to the new Tax Year.
The key to having a smooth shift into 2014/2015 is preparation, so here are a few things to make sure your Year End goes without a hitch.
One of the steps to take is to check for a Week 53 pay period. This only applies to weekly, fortnightly and four weekly payrolls; monthly paid payrolls will never have a period 53. The only way you will have a week 53 pay period is if your payroll is going to fall on Saturday 5th April 2014, and that is the normal pay date for that payroll. If that is the case then you will have to process the payroll that falls on that date as week 53, if your payroll doesn’t fall on 5th April you can just process as normal.
Next, it is important to ensure that all employees that have left in Tax Year 2013/2014 have been made leavers. This is important because the employees who have left before 5th April 2014 will not be issued with a P60 and their final Year to Date figures will appear on their P45.
After processing your payroll it is important to ensure you have submitted your final FPS and EPS. Those employers who use a payroll provider such as Dataplan will have this taken care of for them as a standard part of processing their payroll, but for those companies who use in-house payroll it is an essential part of Year End to ensure HMRC receive these submissions.
All employees must receive a P60 no later than 31st May 2014. For those using a payroll provider, their employees’ P60s will be printed and sent to them but it is their responsibility to ensure they are distributed to their employees by the correct date. Dataplan are currently developing an eP60 option for clients to make the process much quicker and easier.
With a new Tax Year comes new systems for running payroll, including an emergency Tax Code change to 1000L and fines for late RTI submissions meaning changes for any payrolls running a week behind.
For more information on late submission fines, eP60s and Year End click here
