In a moved cited as part of their ongoing cost control measures, HMRC has launched ‘Basic PAYE Tools’ to help employers run their payroll systems.

This new online resource is intended to replace HMRC's Employer CD-ROM and includes all the CD-ROM's interactive features plus an automatic update facility, to ensure the tools are up-to-date with the latest information and figures.

Employers who have used the CD-ROM will need the new tools for the remainder of the 2010/11 tax year and for future tax years. The tools can be downloaded by visiting www.businesslink.gov.uk/basicpayetools.

In addition, employers are being reminded that PAYE information, forms and guidance are all available online at www.businesslink.gov.uk/payeformsandpublications and that paper versions are now only available in limited circumstances from the Employer Orderline.

And, in what would be a fundamental change to the UK PAYE system for employers and employees alike, HMRC are currently conducting a consultation on a possible move to using Real Time Information as the process for collecting PAYE information. Members are invited to provide us with observations towards a possible response by Chartered Accountants Ireland to that consultation document.

HMRC have also published online Employer Bulletin 37. Aimed at Agents and Employers alike, the Bulletin contains important information and news about topics affecting the operation of payroll.

Highlights of this edition include forthcoming tax and national insurance changes which will affect employers and employees in the new tax year and a reminder that ESC B46 ends on 31 March 2011. ESC B46 currently allows a grace period from penalties if company tax returns and employer P35 returns are filed by the last working day within a 7 day period after the filing date.

The Bulletin also discusses changes, effective April 2011, to the information that employers have to provide to their employers’ liability (EL) insurance providers. This is intended to support a new initiative aiming to help people who have suffered injury or disease in the workplace to identify their employer's EL insurer.

The full Bulletin can be accessed at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employer-bulletin/bulletin37.pdf