Top tips: what employers need to know in advance of compliance checks
The regulatory framework that employers operate in is more complicated now than ever with tax, pension, employment law and immigration issues to keep on top of. With areas changing quickly, laws being updated and new guidance being issued on a weekly basis, this is a lot to deal with as a leader in an organisation.
In our recent webinar, Joe Regan, Director of People Advisory, and Tim Stovold, Head of Tax, answered your questions on areas surrounding compliance checks and how to avoid any financial costs that employers may face if they fail to complete.
What to consider before compliance checks
- Regularly review your contracts of employment, particularly when people changes happen or you make any organisational changes. Having non-compliant and poorly drafted contracts can lead to challenge and potential litigation with possible compensation of up to £25,000 for breach of contact.
- Review your Employee Handbook, which is often forgotten and make to reference the handbook in your contract for your HR Policies.
- Ensure you carry out Employee Right to Work Checks, maintain good record keeping and have processes in place to track visa expiry dates.
- Carry out annual refresher training for your people managers.
- Make sure you analyse the facts of any home working arrangements before you agree to reimburse home-to-office travel, as most payments will be subject to tax and NI.
- Take great care when your people request to work from another country as there can be many hidden costs incurred for the business
- The light-touch approach to the policing of the off-payroll working (IR35) ended on 5 April 2022 so expect HMRC to be checking compliance with these rules over the next year or so.
- Make sure that any payments in lieu of notice or ex-gratia payments are properly analysed in any termination of redundancy cases as this has always been a popular area for HMRC to review
- Salary sacrifice schemes are very tax-efficient for the employer and employee but badly implemented schemes can incur large costs for the employer so ensure paperwork implementing the scheme has been reviewed for tax purposes.
We can help
For further advice and guidance on the above, please contact our team.