Thursday October 8, 2009

Dear Reader

Paying Casual Staff

The festive season will soon be getting going with a requirement for many businesses to take on casual staff to cope with increased demand. Quite naturally they're going to expect to get paid and in many cases the natural reaction might be to consider "cash in hand".

Unfortunately, you're leaving yourself vunerable as an employer and business owner. It is against the law not to give employees a payslip or to deduct tax and national insurance. You also have to ensure the casual member of staff is entitled to work in the UK by following the normal identity checks (ask Baroness Scotland about that one) with fines of up to £10000 for failure to comply. You'll also need a P45 from their old employer, or a P46 if they cannot give you a P45 and there are special rules for students. If you're worried you might be at risk or want to avoid these potential pitfalls, please give me a call on 01865 821100. I'll guide you on the specifics or we can take the problem off your hands by running the payroll service in house at our standard rates.

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Tips & The Minimum Wage

After a recent test case, the government has issued a help sheet concerning tips and the minimum wage. From 1st October 2009, tips, service charges and gratuities can no longer count towards national minimum wage pay. PAYE must be operated when the tips are paid to the employee by the employer. Did you also know that where a restaurant adds a mandatory, instead of a discretionary service charge to your bill, it should also add VAT to this service charge?

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New Companies Act

The new Companies Act came into force on 1st October. There are a number of changes which are described here . Some of the more interesting points to come out are that it will become a criminal offence for companies failing to notify Companies House of changes to their articles with 15 days and failing to respond to a notice from the registrar will incur a civil penalty of £200. There will also be tighter rules on company names which are the "same as" existing company names. Companies will also be required to issue a statement of capital (the value of shares issued) when new shares are issued, bought back and other circumstances. These changes have occurred 12 months after removing the requirement for a Company Secretary. If you're worried about the changes, please give me a call as we act as Company Secretary for several of our clients.

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