Hi everyone, I hope you all had a relaxing Christmas and New Year. Apologies there was no column in January but as you may know January is an accountants busiest month due to the personal tax return filing deadline. It wasn’t helped in my case by my 2 year old falling and breaking his leg over Christmas leading to 4 weeks in hospital on traction! Despite all that, we managed to file all clients’ tax returns before the deadline.
January’s Self Assessment deadline turned out to be the busiest in the history of HMRC Online, with the Government’s tax return system processing a total of 980,000 tax returns on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st January.
Self Assessment “rush hour”, which usually occurs around 5pm on deadline day, arrived earlier than usual this year with the deadline falling at the weekend. In rush hour, HMRC’s system processed 530 returns every minute.
With concerning statistics appearing in the run-up to the deadline, HMRC also reported that around 95% of all calls to the tax helplines on deadline day were answered.
As has become the trend, a record number of Self Assessments were completed online this year. Over 85%, or 8.76 million, returns were filed online.
Overall around 210,000 more returns were filed on time this year.
The figures aren’t all positive though; the number of Self Assessments filed late or not at all, jumped significantly this year after 4 years of reductions. Last year some 710,000 returns were filed late, however that figure leapt to 890,000 this January, netting HMRC an additional £18 million in late filing penalties!
Shared Parental Leave & Pay
As a mum and also an employer, a change in the law in December caught my eye that I thought all parents and employers would definitely want to know about.
On 1st December 2014, new regulations giving Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Pay (ShPP) came into force in Great Britain.
SPL will enable eligible mothers, fathers, partners and adopters to choose how to share time off work after their child is born or placed for adoption. It is designed to give parents more flexibility in how to share the care of their child in the first year following birth or adoption.
Employed mothers will continue to be entitled to 52 weeks of Maternity Leave and 39 weeks of pay. However if they choose to do so, an eligible mother can end her maternity leave early and, with her partner or the child’s father, opt for SPL instead. The remaining leave, after maternity leave will be available as SPL and the remaining pay may be available as Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP).
The mother by law must take a minimum of 2 weeks maternity leave or 4 if she works in a factory environment.
To qualify for Shared Parental Leave (SPL),
- you must share care of the child with either your husband, wife, civil partner or joint adopter, the child’s other parent or your partner (if they live with you and the child).
- you must be eligible for maternity pay, maternity leave, maternity pay, maternity allowance, adoption pay or adoption leave.
- you must have been employed continuously for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the due date (or by the date you are matched with your adopted child).
- you must have been employed by the same employer while you take SPL.
For your partner to be eligible during the 66 weeks before the baby is due he/she must:
- have been working for at least 26 weeks (they don’t need to be in a row).
- have earned at least £30 a week on average in 13 of the 66 weeks.
They can be employed, self-employed or an agency worker.
If both parents meet the qualifying requirements, parents will be able to share a pot of leave, and can decide to be off work at the same time and/or take it in turns to have periods of leave to look after the child.
An employer can refuse SPL or ShPP if the employee doesn’t qualify.
Paid Paternity Leave of two weeks will continue to be available to fathers and a mother’s or adopter’s partner, however Additional Paternity Leave will be removed and replaced by SPL.
Employees can take this leave in up to 3 separate blocks instead of taking it all in one go but the employee must give at least 8 weeks notice before a block of leave begins.
An employer can allow an employee to split a block of leave into shorter periods of at least a week if they wish. An employer can’t turn down a request for a block of leave if the employee is eligible and gives the right notice however they don’t have to agree to the employee breaking the block of leave into shorter periods.
This leave and pay must be taken between the baby’s birth and first birthday, or within one year of adoption.
Overall I think this new law will appeal to a lot of families and I am sure many dads will be over the moon to spend more time with their new offspring. However I am not convinced many will take up SPL due to money and office status worries.
Important dates for your diary – Key dates coming up. Company accounts with a 31 May 2014 year end need to be filed at Companies House by 28 February or a £150 fine will be incurred for late filing! Quarter ended January VAT returns to be filed and paid by 7 March and January PAYE to be paid by 19 February.
I hope you found this article useful. Please remember to interact with me and let me know if you want anything covered in the next article.
My email address is hannah@timeaccounts.co.uk or you can follow my firm on Twitter @timeaccounts or visit our business Facebook page (Facebook/timeaccounts). Remember to like our page so you can keep on top of tax saving tips, deadlines and general Time Accounts updates.
See you next month. New Years column coming Thursday 5 March2015!
Time Accounts t/a Time Business Services are a local Sussex based chartered accountancy practice dealing with all aspects of small, medium enterprises and their financial requirements, so just pick up the phone and call 01273 446595 or send us a call back request via our website Time Accounts and we’ll do the rest!