axis payroll User Guide Supplement March 2022

1. What's New?

You are advised to read the Employer Bulletin: February 2022 which is available from the GOV.UK website

Employers continue to be required to supply all employees with a P60 if they are still in your employment at the end of each tax year. 

HMRC are no longer supplying pre-printed stationery. 

axis payroll  prints the P60 documents to a PDF file from where the documents can then be printed on plain A4 paper and issued to your employees. 

Note: for axis payroll 2020 users or those that have the Paperless Payroll Foundation feature, running Create P60 Atttachments will create an axis payroll password protected pdf version of the P60 on the employee record.

Additionally, for axis payroll systems with the People HR Interface feature or the eDoc Deposit Interface feature, P60's can be delivered to your employees via their People HR or eDoc Deposit account. These are password protected and an additional password protected copy is stored in the attachments tab of the employee record in axis payroll.

On 7th September 2021 the government announced a new 1.25% Health and Social Care Levy to fund investment in the NHS, health and social care. The Levy is effectively introduced from April 2022 when National Insurance contributions for working age employees, self-employed people and employers will increase by 1.25 percentage points.

In the December 2021 Employer Bulletin, HMRC asked employers to include a message for employees on all payslips between 6 April 2022 and 5 April 2023 to explain their increased National Insurance contribution. The message should read: “1.25% uplift in NICs funds NHS, health & social care.”

axis payroll 2016, 2018 and 2020 will include this message on A4 payslip formats (AXIS9 and Plain A4) but is unable to include this message on other payslip formats. All other payslip formats will also be discontinued from axis payroll from 6th April 2023.

From April 2023, the Levy will be formally separated from National Insurance contributions and will also apply to the earnings of individuals working above State Pension age. National Insurance contribution rates will then return to 2021 to 2022 levels. The axis payroll March 2023 year end update software release will include modifications to handle the new levy and details will be included in the documentation released for March 2023.

The government has announced that Employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) are to be included in the wider Freeports initiative. Employers with business premises within a Freeport tax site will be able to apply a zero-rate of secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions on the earnings of new employees who spend 60% or more of their working time within the tax site. This rate can be applied on the earnings of all new hires up to £25,000 per annum for 36 months per employee. Governement guidance will be available for employers to self-assess eligibility to claim this relief. This change in rate would see all employers based within and employing people working within the Freeport geographic area, apply a zero-secondary rate of employer NICs for such employees’ earnings above the secondary threshold up to and including a new Freeport Upper Secondary Threshold (FUST).

Introduced on 6 April 2021, employers who hire former members of the UK regular armed forces during the first year of their civilian employment will be eligible for a zero-rate of secondary National Insurance contributions for up to 12 months up to the Veterans Upper Secondary Threshold. Employers will be able to claim this relief through Real Time Information submissions from 6 April 2022 and any earnings of qualifying veterans hired from 6 April 2021 will be eligible for retrospective National Insurance contributions relief.

HMRC guidance is now available for employers wishing to take advantage of the National Insurance holiday for employers of veterans.

A new right to Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay comes into force in Northern Ireland 6 April 2022. This will mirror the parental bereavement provisions that have been in place in Great Britain since April 2020.

axis payroll already supports the recording of Parental Bereavement Leave and the processing of Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP).

As announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer 23rd March 2022 in the Spring Statement 2022, the annual Employment Allowance increases for eligible businesses from £4,000 to £5,000 from 6th April 2022.

As announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer 23rd March 2022 in the Spring Statement 2022, the level at which employees start to pay National Insurance contributions will increase through the application of a raise to the National Insurance Primary Threshold from £9,880 per annum to £12,570 per annum from 6th July 2022.

axis payroll will be updated to reflect these new thresholds in the coming weeks and customers will be contacted and advised to install a payroll software update to implement these changes during June 2022. Further documentation relating to these changes will also be published at that time.