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Staggered start for RTI penalties

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HMRC has announced that there will be a staggered start to the introduction of real time information (RTI) penalties.

HMRC has announced that there will be a staggered start to the introduction of real time information (RTI) penalties. The new automatic in-year PAYE penalties for late filing and late payment and in-year interest (charged on tax and NIC that are paid late during the year) were due to start from 6 April 2014. The new timetable will be:

  • April 2014: in-year interest on any in-year payments not made by the due date;
  • October 2014: automatic in-year late filing penalties; and
  • April 2015: automatic in-year late payment penalties.

At the same time, HMRC is continuing to improve its systems and guidance. HMRC’s director general for personal tax, Ruth Owen, said: ‘The introduction of RTI is going extremely well for the majority of employers but there are still some who need a bit of time to adapt fully to the changes. This additional time will give us the opportunity to ensure that improvements to our internal systems are working, to learn from them and to provide better customer support to employers who need more time to adapt.’

The CIOT welcomed the news. Colin Ben-Nathan, chairman of the institute’s Sub-Committee for Employment Taxes, said the development was ‘a constructive move on the part of HMRC and will hopefully allow the time that both employers and HMRC need to bed down what is a fundamental change to the PAYE system’. However, he added: ‘There are also still some problems with RTI itself which need to be addressed.’

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