I'm ahead of you. I had the 'flippin cheek' moment a few months ago listening to the Minister of State. He was saying it was all simply a matter of I quote: "pressing a button" and would be simple for any company "half well run".
-- Edited by Don Tax on Friday 1st of March 2013 01:39:33 PM
I have been compiling letters to send to our payroll clients regarding RTI saying that we must ensure all information we have for each employee is correct, to basically communicate better with us to ensure there are no mistakes, to ensure they let us know exactly how much they actually pay their staff and on which day for FPS purposes. We have also reviewed our fees to adjust with the extra chasing we are going to have to do as at the moment it is hard enough to get information from our clients and sometimes the payroll hasn't been ran for over a month as they just haven't given us the information we were waiting on.
I've just received a letter from HMRC (they meant to send it to one of our clients but its came to our office). Its about RTI and I noticed it says:
As reporting PAYE in real time happens as part of your routine payroll process, you should expect to see a reduction in time spent on administration.
This to me would give a client the idea that there will be less work involved and so we should reduce our fees or at least keep them the same. Or as if RTI isn't that important so they should carry on not talking to us and ignoring our emails/messages when we are trying to complete their payroll.
Is it just me or does anyone else think HMRC have a flipping cheek!
Ah, but as usual if HMRC told businesses the truth then they wouldn't get such an easy life would they!
The letter should read...
Your life is about to get a whole lot more complex and less flexible. We're giving you a year head start and then we're going to improve our tax revenue take by finding new improved ways to fine, penalty and implement interest charges on the lot of you.... So go on, what you going to do about it punk?
Of course, they're not allowed to say that so they sent the letter that you received instead.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Lol.....I read that very same statement this morning and thought that it couldn't possibly be true. I have a couple of payroll clients and one is extremely difficult to get timesheets out of her employees and the other tends to pay employees willy nilly if I don't keep an eye on him! So the "reduction in time spent on administration" line could apply to some clients, but not others.
Saw this letter a couple of weeks ago and agree that for some companies it could become part of a routine thing, but for many it will become a headache. Going on a course on it next Saturday, so will feed back any titbits if I hear any. Agree with you Shaun. Lets wait until the penalties start arriving on the doormat. :)
I'd be interested to read any feedback Debbie. I'm interested to know what info exactly their collecting. Had a brief look today but it seems vague to me unless I was looking in the wrong place. Didn't spend too much time on it. We outsource payroll and were asked to check info today and I'm not sure I feel happy with some aspects of it at the moment!
I would not be surprised to see the new RTI system to collapse b the end of April. HMRC are certainly not prepared for it!
My prediction: The system may appear to work at a trivial level. HMRC will be accepting the submissions filed.
But HMRC will be overwhelmed by a tidal wave of minor compliance issues (eg monthly PAYE/NI payments from employers that don't *exactly* match FPS filings) and will be completely unable to sort the wheat from the chaff. Extracting and matching the corrected banded hours figures worked for Universal Benefit will prove virtually impossible, because many employers won't file accurately enough.
-- Edited by Tom McClelland on Friday 1st of March 2013 08:28:06 PM
Tom McClelland wrote: My prediction: The system may appear to work at a trivial level.
Thats all that the consultancy that put this together need for it to be heralded as a success.
The real question though is, is there a plan B?
If RTI crashes and burns as I think many are expecting it to, can they revert to the old system. Can the software suppliers revert quickly to the old system?
Also, if they can go back will they recognise that they need to pull the plug in time or try for months to get the pig to fly and by the time they realise that it's not going to there won't be any going back?
Has anyone been fed any contingency plans? Will they continue to run the old systems in Tandem or is this total big bang?
Well, to quote the old Chinese curse. It seems that we are living in interesting times!
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
My Prediction: even if RTI falls on it's backside, HMRC will persevere with it because they want to introduce CIS-type penalties for non-conformity.
And also link RTI to Working family / child tax credits in order to reduce the current estimated overpayments combined with not paying tax credits where RTI not received.
Also, as the system ties into local government systems it will also ensure that those claiming council tax relief are charged the appropriate amount.
Basicaly, it's bringing everything into the 21st century which will not be to the advantage of anyone but the Government , but, it will (should) be correct and current where the existing systems are not.
My real issue with this is that the Government have positioned everything so that they are able to blame the middle man (us) for any issues rather than any of the fallout sticking to them.
I for one will be quite happy to name fingers and point names (thankyou Jack Sparrow) as I fully intend to be the accounting equivalent of Teflon over this impending disaster.
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
