Employees earning <£120pw - add to PAYE scheme?

Retailer with PAYE scheme - do we need to add and report earnings of temps earning less than £120pw?

Didn't find your answer?

Seems like there should be a simple answer to this but I can't find it in official guidance

We are retailers with 4 employees.

I understand that as soon as you have an employee earning over £120pw then you need a PAYE scheme, and indeed we have one.

What I can't discover is whether you need to add to the PAYE scheme, and then report RTI, temporary employees who never earn more than £120pw - i.e. a student who is a "Saturday helper"

Any advice appreciated

FB

Replies (15)

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By Cylhia66
22nd Sep 2021 12:45

If you check what this employee's employment status is, this will give you the answer as to whether he needs to be added to your payroll:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-employment-status-for-tax

The question is not so much how much you pay them but what work they do for your company.

Thanks (2)
Replying to Cylhia66:
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By Paul Crowley
22nd Sep 2021 13:12

I really would not bother looking to try and claim that the students are all self employed
The client has now ceased trading, but I had a person running a post office trying to claim that her "employees" were all self employed shop assistants
I think HMRC would disagree

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Replying to Paul Crowley:
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By Cylhia66
22nd Sep 2021 13:33

My expectation is that if the OP runs the test it will tell him this student should be employed. It was one (maybe roundabout) way of telling him the student must be added to payroll.

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Replying to Cylhia66:
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By Paul Crowley
22nd Sep 2021 13:52

I still get clients telling me that casual wages can be ignored
After all at 65 what would I know?

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By neiltonks
22nd Sep 2021 12:45

Once you have a PAYE scheme, you need to report everyone you pay, regardless of how much they earn.

See https://www.gov.uk/running-payroll/reporting-to-hmrc, which says "Include everyone you pay, even if they get less than £120 a week."

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Replying to neiltonks:
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By Paul Crowley
22nd Sep 2021 13:06

The correct answer
If you have a PAYE scheme report all wages payments

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Replying to neiltonks:
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By francisbyng1
22nd Sep 2021 14:46

Many thanks - this was the gov.uk page that I could not find with my searches

FB

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By Paul Crowley
22nd Sep 2021 13:15

Your students need to complete a starter form
He might have seven jobs each less than £100 per week
Casual wages are not tax free

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Replying to Paul Crowley:
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By Leywood
22nd Sep 2021 15:11

The bit that folk miss.

Re-visiting the information on a regular basis is often missed, when there is was no initial need to run an official payroll, but the need arose as the part timer took on said 7 jobs!

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By Hugo Fair
22nd Sep 2021 17:51

For those with long memories, there used to be an exemption for low-paid students working part-time (evenings and/or holiday time only) ... although my memory has gone blank as to what it was called!
However this was withdrawn in the run-up to the introduction of RTI.
So, as per everyone else's comments on here, if you have a PAYE scheme then each and every payment of earnings must now be reported via RTI for that scheme.

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Replying to Hugo Fair:
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By Paul Crowley
23rd Sep 2021 09:14

There was also a student rate of NI that was a bit like the married women's rate
I was a cleaner at the time that I was in 6th form

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Replying to Hugo Fair:
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By Michael Davies
23rd Sep 2021 10:14

I think it was 38 S ?Maybe wrong,my memory is not what it was with advancing age.I still remember con cards and investment income surcharge and a tax rate of 98 %.

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Replying to Michael Davies:
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By Wanderer
23rd Sep 2021 10:59

P38S
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/paye-manual/paye46045
"From 6 April 2013, form P38(S) is withdrawn and students will be treated in the same way as all other employees for PAYE tax and NIC’s purposes regardless of when they work for an employer. Employers already within RTI have dealt with students this way since joining RTI."

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Replying to Wanderer:
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By Hugo Fair
23rd Sep 2021 13:19

Thanks. Nice to know that my memory's still fine on the general detail, it's just the name of forms that sometimes eludes me (a bit like remembering what people looked like and did/said but not recalling their name)!

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John Hextall
By John Hextall
23rd Sep 2021 11:34

If you are paying them they need to be on the payroll and reported through RTI, even if they earn less than £120 per week. If they are temporary employees (i.e., employed through a temp agency) then they don't.

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