PIXIE PAYROLL Blog

As February is the month of love, we thought for our blog this month, we’d share some ideas on how employers can show their employees some appreciation, which can boost employee satisfaction, make them feel valued and reduce staff turnover. It goes without saying that being happy at work, working in a comfortable environment, feeling supported day-to-day and being appropriately paid should be the first consideration for all employers but if that’s all in place, here are some more ideas.

Flexible working

If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from the pandemic, it’s that flexible working and hybrid working models are effective and are appreciated by employees. It gives them the chance to work around family responsibilities, outside interests or even what time of day they perform best – are they larks or owls?

If your business allows, break away from the 9-5 and consult with your employees on developing a flexible working policy for them.

Free food

Some businesses, such as Facebook, provide three meals a day for employees but we’re not suggesting everyone needs to go that far. This benefit could be as simple as placing a few boxes of cereal in the kitchen for those who didn’t get time for breakfast, keeping a steady flow of tea and coffee going during the day or arranging a regular delivery of fruit for everyone to enjoy.

An occasional staff lunch is always welcome; arrange a pizza delivery and get everyone to leave their desks for a while for a bit of downtime and networking.

Staff discounts

Can you arrange for local businesses to give your employees discounts just for working for you? Corporate memberships at gyms are really common but also consider veg box delivery companies, local cafes & restaurants, travel agents or even new car dealerships.

Paid time off

Many businesses offer their employees extra time off for special occasions. A day off on their birthday is a nice gesture but you could also think about times where some time off might reduce stress such as when moving to a new house or in the lead up to a wedding.

Another option might be to offer employees paid time off to pursue their outside interests; for example, one day a month to volunteer for a charity that is close to their hearts or to attend a class.

You should also make sure your paid maternity, paternity and adoption leave policy is as good as it can be as well as the policy for child care or other caring responsibilities.

Saying thank you

Do you say a simple but heartfelt ‘ thank you’ to your employees often enough? It’s a good idea to keep a note of peoples’ work anniversaries so they can be marked; it doesn’t have to be a special or even an especially long one – you can mark a 1^st anniversary as well as a 30^th.

If someone has put in extra effort, achieved something significant or supported a colleague, saying thank you at those points is a good idea too. You could combine this with the pizza lunch and use the achievement as a reason for the special occasion.

Health benefits

Private medical insurance, health plans, dental plans, access to 24/7 GP support or mental health care are really valuable benefits and will give employees real choice and flexibility when managing their and their family’s health, especially now when the NHS is under so much pressure.

There are many options available for this type of benefit and it is worth talking to a specialist about it before making any decisions, especially as this benefit is taxable.

We’d love to hear from you

If you have any questions about employee benefits, how they are taxed or how they might affect your employee’s take home pay, just get in touch and we can give you some more information.

2022 is now well underway and there are even early signs of spring here in South West Cornwall. The year ahead will see some changes and challenges so for this month’s blog, we thought we’d do a rundown of what’s coming up in 2022.  

Wage rates increase

From 1^st April this year, the National Living Wage, National Minimum Wage and wage rates for younger people and apprentices will increase:

	Current Rate	New Rate from April 2022
National Living Wage	£8.91	£9.50
21-22 Year Old Rate	£8.36	£9.18
18-20 Year Old Rate	£6.56	£6.83
16-17 Year Old Rate	£4.62	£4.81
Apprentice Rate	£4.30	£4.81

These are relatively generous increases with the National Living Wage increasing by 6.6% and the 21-22 year old rate increasing by 9.8% which is good news considering inflation is currently high. But it will increase the wage bill for employers so if you need some forecasts on your future wages bill, get in touch.

National Insurance increase

There is a plan to increase the amount of National Insurance employers, employees and the self-employed pay from April this year by 1.25%. The government has committed to spend this extra money on health and social care following the pandemic and estimates that the increase will raise an additional £12bn. Only those earning over £520 per month pay National Insurance and the increase will not apply to those claiming the state pension.

The increase was voted through in Parliament last year and would need another vote in order to reverse the decision but with the general cost of living increases recently, there have been some calls to scrap the increase.

Extra bank holidays

This year marks 70 years since the Queen’s accession to the throne and so we have been granted an extra bank holiday day, and a postponement of the late May bank holiday, in order to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee. Thursday 2^nd and Friday 3^rd June will be holiday days and so employers will need to plan for either closing their workplace, allowing staff time off in lieu or extra pay for those businesses which will stay open.

Let’s just hope it will be a warm, sunny weekend for all the celebrations.

Covid-19 and business support

This is where our crystal ball starts to fail us. As I write, the restrictions that were put in place just before Christmas to tackle the Omicron variant have been lifted and apart from some residual mask wearing requirements, there is a feeling that things are pretty much returning to normal.

However, as we have learnt from experience over the last couple of years, a few surprises could still be around the corner so we’ll be keeping a close eye on developments and will update our social media and blogs should anything change.

There are some support schemes still open such as the Omicron Hospitality & Leisure Grant which is now open to those who have been invited to apply or the Test & Trace Support Payment Scheme for eligible people who have tested positive for Covid-19.

As always, if we can support you with help and advice on any aspect of your payroll, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

When I originally planned to write this blog post looking back on 2021, I have to admit I thought things would be a bit more positive. But the discovery and spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has put us all on the back foot a bit as we head into the festive season. But there have been some positive developments this year so it’s still worth reminding ourselves of how far we’ve come.

New year, new vaccines

The year started with hope as the incredible effort by the NHS to get us all vaccinated started. Down here in Cornwall, it was as efficient as in much of the rest of the country and soon we were discussing Pfizer or Astra Zeneca, sharing stories of side effects and proudly holding our vaccination cards.

As we now know, many of us have now had or are about to receive our booster dose of the vaccine and so we end the year and begin 2022 once again in the midst of a vaccination drive.

Continuation of Furlough

As we described in our September blog which you can read here, we started 2021 with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in place and planned to end in March, then April and finally being extended until September.

Managing payroll schemes that were part of the CJRS has undoubtedly been one of my biggest challenges this year especially with those employers who chose to run under flexible furlough, but it has also been gratifying to be able to help my clients through extraordinary times. Businesses have survived and household incomes have been retained thanks to CJRS and so are in a better place than they might have been as we close the year.

I was also anticipating having to handle quite a few redundancy situations as the furlough scheme started to taper and finally came to an end in September but thankfully that hasn’t been the case so far.

Emerging from lockdown

Another significant impact of the pandemic for me this year has been supporting employers as their businesses reopened as we progressed along the road map out of lockdown.

For some, that meant bringing employees back off furlough and for others, it meant recruiting and training new team members. In the end, the final stage of lifting lockdown was delayed for four weeks but it ended just in time for us to have an incredible summer here in Cornwall – it was so busy and payroll preparation was non-stop! Yes there were a few traffic jams but it was good to see my hospitality clients busy again.

The Great Resignation

That’s quite a big fancy title for what, on the ground, is a simple case of extreme staff shortages. Hospitality has been particularly hard hit but many other industries such as construction and healthcare have had problems recruiting staff.

There are a number of factors at play, but some have attributed it to people using the lockdown to reassess their lives and choose a change of direction. The ONS reported this week that unemployment is down to 4.3% and there are a total of 1.22m job vacancies currently available. In November, 257,000 people were added to payrolls in the UK which certainly reflects how busy I’ve been with adding new staff to payroll schemes and preparing contracts of employment.

With such a tricky recruitment environment,  we dedicated our July blog to best recruitment practice which you can read here.

2021 for Pixie Payroll

As I mentioned before, there’s no doubt that 2021 has been another busy and challenging year for me as I’ve supported employers and employees through another year of the pandemic.

I have been very pleased to have added to my client base this year and it’s been so good to meet new clients and manage new payroll schemes. On a personal level, 2021 has also been an exciting year for our family as we welcomed my new grandson Oliver in August.

So as the festive season is nearly here, I’d like to wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and best wishes for 2022.

The construction industry has been in the news a lot recently with shortages of both staff and materials being an issue. Although building sites were allowed to keep working during part of lockdown, like many businesses they experienced shutdowns, staff absence and delays to projects.

But behind the scenes, many subcontractors and traders have a unique arrangement in terms of their pay and taxation and there is a special scheme to manage it. As we look after a number of these, we thought it would be an interesting topic for this month’s blog.

Why does construction need a special scheme?

Because construction is such a project-based industry and many of the people working on sites are self-employed, it needs a special way of paying people and helping them manage their tax liabilities.

HMRC administers the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) and it has two elements – contractors and subcontractors; although somewhat confusingly, a person can be both a contractor and subcontractor.

All contractors must register with the scheme. Subcontractors don’t have to register but if they don’t, their deductions will be at a higher rate that if they were.

Contractors

Anyone who pays subcontractors to do construction work is classed as a contractor and so must register for CIS. A contractor can be a sole trader, limited company or in a partnership and they must register before they can start working with subcontractors.

Once the scheme is set up, contractors need to verify each subcontractor they take on with HMRC to check whether they are also registered and to confirm what the correct rate of deductions is. They’ll also need to show that the subcontractor couldn’t have been an employee instead and there are penalties to pay if this isn’t the case.

Contractors have to keep records of their scheme and file monthly returns as well as deducting the money and paying it over to HMRC.

Subcontractors

It’s not compulsory for subcontractors to register with CIS but doing so means deductions are taken at a lower rate. It also helps subcontractors to keep on top of their tax liability and manage cash flow. In addition, many contractors specify CIS when they are advertising vacancies.

As for contractors, a subcontractor can be an individual, limited company or partnership. It is possible for any one entity to be both a contractor and a subcontractor and so must register as both with the scheme.

Once a subcontractor is registered, the contractor they’re working for must deducted 20% of their payments and pass it to HMRC as a contribution towards their tax and national insurance. Then, when the subcontractor comes to do their self-assessment tax return, they can record the amounts already deducted which will go towards the overall tax bill.

Getting help with a CIS scheme

The good news is that if you are a contractor, you don’t have to do all this by yourself. If you have a CIS up and running already, we can administer it for you – verifying new subcontractors, calculating deductions and keeping records.

If you don’t yet have a CIS scheme and think you’re going to need one, just get in touch. We can register your business with HMRC for you and ensure everything is done correctly from day one.

Either way, let us help you and then it’ll be one less thing you’ll have to worry about when on site or project planning.

If you want to read more about CIS as a subcontractor, click here or as a contractor click here.