Employers of casual harvest workers and beaters to benefit from a useful relaxation in the new payroll rules, announced 17 July. Farmers and landowners will benefit from an easing of the new tax rules, introduced as part of the new PAYE reporting system under 'Real Time Information' (RTI).
"Essentially, the relaxation means that if you take on workers for a day here and there, and they are paid less than £109 a week, then you can report this to the tax authorities on a weekly, rather than a daily basis."
"While the new RTI rules are undoubtedly far more onerous to operate than the previous payroll system, this is nevertheless a useful concession. It will go a little way towards easing the burden for farmers and landed estates where the employment of casual short term workers is so very common," said Jerry Barnes, partner and member of the specialist landed estates group at Smith & Williamson, the accountancy and investment management group.
To be eligible for this concession, two further criteria must be met. Firstly, the casual workers must be employed for more than one day, but less than two weeks; secondly, the employer must report the payment to HMRC within seven days of the first payment being made to the individual in that period.
"Employers must continue to notify HMRC of the individual's name, address, date of birth, gender and ideally their NI number as well. Although this can now be given on a weekly, rather than daily basis where appropriate," said Paul Tucker, partner and employment tax specialist, also at Smith & Williamson.
He warned: "Despite this concession, the RTI system is likely to result in significant extra costs for employers as their payrolls are still likely to take longer to process."
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