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UK Employer Responsibilities and Payroll Calculation Guideline

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UK Employer Responsibilities and Payroll Calculation Guideline

This article gives a general guidance on employers’ three main responsibilities and how payroll works in the UK, including taxation, national insurance contribution and pension. Some figures such as basic personal allowance and employment allowance could vary from year to year. Unless otherwise stated, the following figures apply from 6 April 2022 to 5 April 2023.

  1. Employers Responsibilities

    (1)
    Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Registration

    Employers need to register with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) when they start employing staffs. Registration must be done before the first payday. It can take up to 5 working days to get the employer PAYE reference number, which comprises three-digit HMRC office number and a unique reference number, usually it looks something like 123/AB45678, with some exceptions.

    (2)
    Auto Enrolment (AE) Pension

    AE Pension was introduced by the Government as a way to help employees save in a tax efficient way for their retirement with the help of their employer and to reduce their reliance on the State Pension.

    Employers need to choose a pension scheme as soon as they can as it can take some time to complete. They can either choose the scheme themselves or get help form an advisor.

    There are a number of things an employer should check before choosing a pension scheme. This includes whether it will accept all the staff, how much it cost and whether it uses the best tax relief method for their staff, and whether it will work with their payroll.

    (3)
    Employers’ Liability (EL) Insurance

    An employer must get EL Insurance as soon as becoming an employer, and the policy must cover for at least £5 million and come from an authorised insurer.
    EL insurance will pay compensation if an employee is injured or becomes ill because of the work they do.

    An employer could be fined £2,500 every day if they are not properly insured and could be fined £1,000 if they do not display EL certificate or refuse to make it available to inspectors when they ask.

  2. Payroll Calculation Illustration

    Tax and National Insurance Contribution have to be deducted and paid to HMRC by employers on behalf of employees, whereas pension contribution become compulsory for employers when employees opt in. Below is a summary table with detailed illustrations:-

    No.

    Categories

    Paid by

    Rate

    Annual Income Range

    1

    Tax (PAYE)

    Employee

    0%

    between 0 to £12,570

    20%

    between £12,571 to £50,270

    40%

    between £50,271 to £150,000

    45%

    above £150,000

    2

    National Insurance Contribution (NIC)

    Employee

    0%

    between 0 to £9,880*

    13.25%

    between £9,881**to £50,268

    3.25%

    above £50,268

    Employer

    0%

    between 0 to £9,100

    15.05%

    above £9,100

    3

    Pension

    (Auto enrolment)

    Employee

    5%

    above £6,240

    Employer

    3%

    above £6,240


    Remarks: *  Change to £12,570 from 6 July 2022
                  ** Change to £12,571 from 6 July 2022


    (1)
    Tax (PAYE)

    Most people are allowed to receive a certain amount of income before having to pay income tax. This is known as the basic personal allowance. It may be bigger if Marriage Allowance or Blind Person’s Allowance is claimed.
    In 2022-23, the basic personal allowance is £12,570. The personal allowance is the same for everyone, but it is reduced if you earn more than £100,000.

    (2)
    National Insurance Contribution (NIC)

    National Insurance is collected by government to fund state benefits such as state pension, jobseeker’s allowance, maternity allowance etc. It is paid by three groups of people:

    (a) Employees      -    from their wages
    (b) Employers       -    on top of the wages they pay out
    (c) Self-employed  -    trading profits

    Employer NICs have a tax-free threshold per employer. The employment allowance reduces each employer’s aggregate NICs liability by up to £5,000 a year, provided that their liability in the previous year was less than £100,000, and that a company director is not the sole employee earning above the secondary threshold.

    (3)
    Pension (Auto enrolment)

    All employers must offer a workplace pension scheme by law, and enrol eligible employees into a pension scheme and make contributions to their pension.

    Eligible employees are those:

    (a) aged between 22 and State Pension age
    (b) earn more than £10k a year
    (c) work in the UK

    In most AE schemes, contributions made based on employees’ total earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year before tax. Total earnings include:

    (a) salary
    (b) bonuses and commission
    (c) overtime
    (d) statutory sick pay
    (e) statutory maternity, paternity or adoption pay

    Total minimum contribution is 8%, and employers minimum contribution is 3%. In case of employers contributing more than 3%, employees can pay in less than 5% as long as total minimum contribution is met.

    Employees have the option to ‘opt out’ and ‘opt in’, and employers must provide information to assist them further.

  3. An Example for Payroll Calculation

    Take monthly salary £3,000 as an example, the cost to employer is £3421,whereas the actual employee take-home pay is  £2222 only.

     

    Monthly Salary £

    PAYE

    NIC

    Pension

    Cost/Take-home

    Amount £

    Note

    Amount £

    Note

    Amount £

    Note

    Amount £

    Employer

    3,000

    -

    337

    £9,100 threshold, @15.05%

    74

    £6,240 threshold, @3%

    3,412

    Employee

    3,000

    391

    £12,570 tax free annual allowance, @20%

    288

    £9,880 threshold, @13.25%

    99

    £6,240 threshold, @5%

    2,222



Disclaimer

All information in this article is only for the purpose of information sharing, instead of professional suggestion. Kaizen will not assume any responsibility for loss or damage.

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