Ready, Steady, RTI

Tools and information to prepare employers

As reporting of PAYE information in 'Real Time' looms ever closer, HMRC continue to remind and help employers make the transition to Real Time Information (RTI) as smooth as possible.

Employers may find the following links to quick references as a useful starting point to preparing themselves for the radical change to PAYE:

1. Business Readiness Checklist (PDF);
2. Webinar: A guide to help employers get ready to operate in real time (LINK);
3. YouTube presentation:  HMRC introduction to RTI (LINK);
4. HMRC leaflet, 'Reporting and paying HMRC in real time: getting it right', which their officers will use on employer visits;

When RTI kicks in from 6th April 2013, HMRC believe that employers will benefit from much simpler requirements of reporting to HMRC and that there will be savings to business totalling £300 million brought about by reduced administration.

Employees, particularly the one million people who have multiple jobs in the UK, will benefit as HMRC starts to receive details of their tax every time wages are paid rather than once a year. This should mean that HMRC's records are more accurate and up-to-date and reduce the incidences of underpayments and overpayments of tax.

Meanwhile, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has told HMRC's chief executive, Lin Homer, not to be over reliant on RTI. Margaret Hodge, chair of the PAC, told Ms Homer, “Don't depend on RTI. I feel that you [Homer] are seeing RTI as a bit of a panacea to deal with a lot of the complexities and difficulties that you've got". Hodge's comments were inspired by her suggestion that as many as a quarter of submissions during the RTI pilot were incorrect. Homer however refuted this suggestion as she believed that the pilot scheme rated in excess of 90% for accuracy in processing details of more than 4 million taxpayers since April 2012.