There are important changes taking effect from 1 April 2019 that you need to be aware of.
In summary, all employers will need to file payroll information every payday even if you are paying your employees by automatic payment. Currently employers file employee earnings and PAYE information every month (twice monthly for large employers) regardless of when they pay their employees. Under the new changes, you will be required to file payroll information more frequently. PAYE payment dates remain unchanged.
Inland Revenue will also require details for new employees including contact details and their date of birth (if, they provide this to you). These details need to be filed on or before any new employees first payday.
There may be some steps to make this process easier and to reduce compliance costs, so it is a good opportunity to start planning for this. For example:
- Aligning all employees to be paid in the same pay frequency
- Changing pay periods to fortnightly or monthly
- Start using payroll software that will seamlessly integrate to Inland Revenue
- Register for MYIR with Inland Revenue to start filing electronically
- Consider outsourcing your payroll
If you are currently filing manual returns to Inland Revenue there are a new set of rules and timeframes for when the information is due.
If we are processing your PAYE, we will need timesheets for each employee to allow us to process your wages each pay and return this information to Inland Revenue (within 2 working days of payment) – we will be in touch to discuss this further.
Please contact your local BDO adviser if you have any queries on payday filing so we can discuss options and how we can support you through these changes.