Get ready! Major PAYE changes coming in 2013

From April 2013, a phased introduction of Real Time Information (RTI) will see all employers required to submit payroll data to HM Revenue & Customs online on or before payments credit employees’ bank accounts, rather than at payroll year end.

HMRC will tell you the date from which your business should submit RTI returns. This will be sometime between April and October 2013.

Whilst there is a lot of merit in what is trying to be achieved by HMRC we think there’s a disproportionate level of responsibility being placed on employers in a short space of time.

Some of these changes will be challenging for employers and they may need a helping hand in being shown how to submit under RTI or import a payment file from their software rather than keying in individual amounts as they are used to.

If your payroll software isn’t compliant, you may need to find a suitable new or updated payroll software.

There are four key tasks you should undertake now – well before RTI is introduced:

• Data cleansing – submit employee data to HMRC before RTI is live so HMRC can if check your data is acceptable.
• Improve data quality – Make sure you obtain dates of birth, use full names (as per NI records) and include addresses when employees are entered on your payroll.
• Speak to your payroll software supplier or payroll provider – Make sure they can deliver on RTI.
• Banking – Are you able to use a file your payroll software generates to submit to BACS using your banking facility?