06 Dec 12
9,500 professionals enrolled to date in RTI Training
Berkshire, UK, 3 January 2013 – Thousands of businesses may not be ready to start reporting employee payroll data (PAYE) in real time, called Real Time Information or RTI, to HMRC by April 6th 2013 – the date by which most employers will be legally required to do so.
Today, HMRC is urging employers to prepare for RTI as soon as possible, and IRIS is seeing enrolment numbers for RTI training courses rapidly increasing as a result. To help meet high industry demand for more information and raise understanding of the imminent change, IRIS is increasing the number of its RTI courses by 25 per cent, holding them across the country before the end of March.
The introduction of RTI is now less than three months away, but recent research from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that 25 per cent of small businesses had never heard of the legislation. An independent study by IRIS Software Group confirmed these fears, with 55 per cent of respondents saying they felt unprepared and 80 per cent feeling that HMRC had not supplied adequate information.
Mark Paraskeva, CEO at IRIS SME Division said: “I welcome today’s announcement from HMRC, encouraging employers to look at what changes they will need to make to their business operations as soon as possible. We recommend all businesses check that their systems and processes will be RTI compliant and prepare accordingly.”
He continued: “We noticed a severe lack of RTI training and support in the market some time ago, possibly due to a lack of awareness and understanding of the change taking place in what is now only 90 days. We began offering RTI training seminars to any business, whether they were IRIS customers or not, last summer, in an attempt to help ensure employers are prepared for the transition.”
IRIS has already enrolled nearly 9,500 people on RTI training courses in 2012, but demand continues to rise and many courses across the UK have sold out. As a result, IRIS has scheduled some 25 per cent more courses to take place in the next three months, and introduced online seminars and on site consultations for those unable to attend the classroom based sessions.
Viewed as the biggest change to payroll since PAYE was introduced in 1944, RTI will completely alter the way employers run payroll and will affect 1.4 million SMEs from April. Instead of submitting data to HMRC annually, this information will now have to be submitted electronically, on or before, each time an employer makes a payroll run.
HMRC stated that their aim in introducing RTI is to make the PAYE process simpler for employers and pension providers, while making in-year deductions more accurate for individuals. However, with a number of new processes to learn before implementation, it is vital businesses start preparing as soon as possible.
For more information on the RTI training IRIS offers or to book your place, visit: http://small-business-software.iris.co.uk//training/rti-classroom-training.aspx
About IRIS Software
With 30 years' experience, the IRIS Software Group provides business critical software and services to the UK accountancy and SME sectors. More than 15,000 UK accountants and 30,000 small and medium sized companies rely on IRIS everyday to run their business.
IRIS Accountancy Solutions offers customers the greatest choice of specialist accountancy software and services managed under three leading brands - IRIS, PTP and Drummohr. With 98% customer retention, 2.5 million tax returns successfully filed with HMRC and 60% of the top 50 practices as customers, IRIS is the most trusted accountancy software provider in the UK today.
Follow us on Twitter @irisaccountants
IRIS SME Solutions provides payroll technology to over 30,000 SMEs and payroll bureaus. As a leading provider of payroll software, IRIS serves a number of sectors, including 70% of UK GP practices and a growing number of UK retailers. More than 10% of the UK workforce are paid via IRIS solutions.
Follow us on Twitter @irispayroll
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