20 Change of employment where certificate of tax credits and standard rate cut-off point or tax deduction card held.

(1) If an employer ceases to employ an employee in respect of whom a certificate of tax credits and standard rate cut-off point or tax deduction card has been issued to him or her, he or she shall immediately send to the inspector by whom the certificate of tax credits and standard rate cut-off point or tax deduction card was issued a certificate on the prescribed form containing the following particulars:

(a) the name of the employee;

(b) the date on which the employment ceased;

(c) the week or income tax month in respect of which the last payment of emoluments was recorded on the tax deduction card and the cumulative emoluments at the date of that payment;

and any other particulars as to tax credits and standard rate cut-off point, tax or any other matters which are indicated by such form as being required to be entered thereon.

(2) The employer shall make on the prescribed form [3 copies]¹ of the certificate required by paragraph (1) of this Regulation and shall deliver them to the employee on the date the employment ceases.

(3) Immediately on commencing his or her next employment the employee shall deliver to the new employer [2 copies]² of the certificate prepared by the former employer and, subject to the provisions of paragraph (4) of this Regulation, the following provisions shall have effect:

[(a) the new employer shall insert on one copy of the certificate—

(i) the address of the employee,

(ii) the date on which the new employment commenced,

(iii) the rate of payment of the emoluments and

(iv) the manner in which the payment of emoluments is made to the employee, that is to say, weekly, monthly or as the case may be some other period,

and immediately send that copy to the inspector by whom certificates of tax credit and standard rate cut-off point are ordinarily issued to the employee;]³

(b) the inspector shall send to the new employer a certificate of tax credits and standard rate cut-off point or tax deduction card, as appropriate, for the employee;

(c) pending the receipt of the certificate of tax credits and standard rate cut-off point or tax deduction card from the inspector, the new employer shall prepare a temporary tax deduction form and, in relation to payments of emoluments by him or her, record on it —

(i) the date of payment,

(ii) the gross amount of emoluments, and

(iii) as respects each week or income tax month (as may be appropriate), the tax credits and standard rate cut-off point for Week 1 or Month 1 as specified on the copies of the certificate prepared by the former employer,

and having regard to the standard rate cut-off point as specified on the copies of the certificate prepared by the former employer, the new employer shall deduct tax on the aggregate amount of the emoluments for the week or income tax month (as may be appropriate) by reference to the tax due at the standard rate of tax and the higher rate of tax (as may be appropriate) on such emoluments reduced by the tax credits for Week 1 or Month 1 as specified on the copies of the certificate prepared by the former employer;

(d) when the new employer has received a certificate of tax credits and standard rate cut-off point or tax deduction card from the inspector, he or she shall, having ascertained the aggregate of the amounts of the emoluments and the aggregate of the amounts of the tax by reference to the relevant entries on the copies of the certificate prepared by the former employer and on the temporary tax deduction form (if any), record on the tax deduction card or such other record as may be authorised those aggregates, and those aggregates shall be deemed respectively to be the cumulative emoluments paid and the cumulative tax deducted by him or her.

(4) (a) Where the 2 copies of the certificate prepared by the former employer show that the last payment of emoluments was in the year preceding that in which the new employment commences, the new employer shall comply with the provisions of paragraph (3) of this Regulation with the modification that he or she shall not record, or have regard to, the cumulative emoluments and cumulative tax shown on the copies of the certificate.

(b) Where the 2 copies of the certificate prepared by the former employer show that the last payment of emoluments was in a year earlier than the year preceding that in which the new employment commences, the new employer shall comply with the provisions of subparagraph (a) of paragraph (3) of this Regulation but deduct tax from each payment of emoluments made by him or her to the employee, and keep records on the emergency card referred to in Regulation 22, as if those payments had been payments to which paragraph (2) of that Regulation applied.

(c) [where an employee has recommenced employment with the same employer in the same year and the 2 copies of the certificate referred to in paragraph (3) relate to that employment, then the employer shall comply with the provisions of paragraph (3) of this Regulation.]⁴

(5) If the new employer ceases to employ the employee before he or she receives a certificate of tax credits and standard rate cut-off point or tax deduction card from the inspector, he or she shall comply with the provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Regulation as if a certificate of tax credits and standard rate cut-off point or tax deduction card in respect of the employee had been issued to him or her by the inspector, but —

(a) for the purposes of subparagraph (c) of paragraph (1) of this Regulation, the cumulative emoluments shall be taken to be the aggregate of the cumulative emoluments shown on the copies of the certificate prepared by the former employer and the gross emoluments paid by the new employer; and

(b) where, as respects the certificate on the prescribed form referred to in that paragraph (1), entry of particulars of the cumulative tax is required to be made thereon, that tax shall be taken for the purposes of that entry to be the aggregate of the cumulative tax shown on those copies and any tax deducted by the new employer.

(6) If the employee objects to the disclosure to the new employer of his or her cumulative emoluments, he or she may deliver the 2 copies of the certificate prepared by the former employer to the inspector before he or she commences his or her new employment, and the inspector shall send in respect of the employee to the new employer a certificate of tax credits and standard rate cut-off point or tax deduction card not stating the employee's cumulative tax credits and standard rate cut-off point or cumulative emoluments and direct that Regulation 19 shall apply to all payments of emoluments which the new employer makes to or on behalf of the employee.

(7) Retirement on pension shall not be treated as a cessation of employment for the purposes of this Regulation or of Regulation 19 if the emoluments are paid by the same person both before and after the retirement.