Is this now our responsibility also? Thanks HMRC

Is this now our responsibility also? Thanks HMRC

Didn't find your answer?

Received an e-mail today which asked that i do this. [bold - my emphasis]

  • Please encourage your employees to tell HMRC if their address changes, as this will help us to correctly identify any Scottish taxpayers and ensure they pay the right amount of tax. They can do this online at GOV.UK.

Rather think i have enough to do without this.

Replies (9)

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RLI
By lionofludesch
07th Mar 2016 10:43

Do it already

I do actually point this out to clients' employees as most of them think it's my job.

Saves trouble later. I can always say, "Yeah, I told you but you took no gorm."

I'd be miffed if it became another obligation, though.

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By dnicholson
07th Mar 2016 10:51

Do it anyway?
Well if the employees' addresses are on their payslip they're going to ask you to change it anyway. You change it in your software to make the payslip right, then it will be filed with RTI. Recently HMRC changed to treating an RTI address change to be an actual employee address change.

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Replying to bernard michael:
By Democratus
07th Mar 2016 11:06

Not necessarily

dnicholson wrote:
Well if the employees' addresses are on their payslip they're going to ask you to change it anyway. You change it in your software to make the payslip right, then it will be filed with RTI. Recently HMRC changed to treating an RTI address change to be an actual employee address change.

This is a good point and yes i know RTI will tell HMRC of any changes - it's the "encouraging" bit i have issue with. Not my problem. In addition, and for reasons which i do not necessarily need to know i am pretty sure that not all the addresses that i have are "correct". 

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Replying to bernard michael:
RLI
By lionofludesch
07th Mar 2016 11:12

Thanks.

dnicholson wrote:
Recently HMRC changed to treating an RTI address change to be an actual employee address change.

I hadn't picked up on that.

What I meant was, if the employee told me of a change of address, I told them to tell HMRC as well.

Obviously, I won't bother in future.

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By Hugo Fair
07th Mar 2016 13:15

Not as simple as HMRC would have you believe ...

Regarding the change in policy on FPS files ... Yes - HMRC will now "look at" an employee's address in an FPS even when the employee is not a new starter (which used to be a pre-requisite for them to look at the address), but:

a) Completing the address fields in an FPS is not mandatory, so some software products don't output them; and

b) HMRC have some very complicated rule, which they haven't published regarding in what circumstances this 'looking at' translates into using the data to update the taxpayer's record.

The net result is that they can't rely on FPS files to keep a taxpayer's address up-to-date ... hence the call to "encourage your employees to tell HMRC if their address changes"!

For what it's worth, one of the fundamental flaws in the FPS-based solution is that there's no guarantee that the address given by an employee to an employer is the same as the one they want used by HMRC for central records - e.g. a student who is based at 'home' but works in the summer holidays for an employer hundreds of miles away (and gives them a local hostel address for employer communications).

All this (and much more) was pointed out to HMRC over 2 years ago ... but as usual it was ignored - so we end up with half-baked/contradictory 'solutions' where any 'error' will be anyone other than HMRC's fault!

 

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By dnicholson
08th Mar 2016 11:34

Mor specific
To quote HMRC in Dec 2014:

"With effect from April 2015 HMRC will process changes to employee’s addresses for existing employees when we identify that a new address has been included on an FPS.

Employees will be able to notify their employer they have changed their address and this can be included in their employer’s next FPS. The employees account will be updated accordingly."

HMRC's data can never be any better than what's provided, but that's hardly HMRC's fault. I think it's pretty clear that they'll update addresses, although there's a general background process to check employee identification to help achieve correct NINO's.

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By Kathryn15
08th Mar 2016 11:52

Scottish addresses


During the HMRC Working Together Webinar yesterday we were advised that employees should advise HMRC separately of any change of address, even though the new address will have been noted on the FPS. As to it helping to identify Scottish taxpayers, well HMRC have in many cases not successfully done this, despite having the correct Scottish addresses for taxpayers. The identification system just doesn't seem to have worked!

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By pauljohnston
08th Mar 2016 12:03

Slightly off subject

I went on line to amend my notice of coding, since HMRC got it wrong!

The number of questions was un beliveable but what I did not like was the statement that we will use this email address to contact you in the future.  Based on the number of emails we receive from HMRC I decided to advise by mail.  As an accountants we always advise by mail and on line if client moves.

I will see if a note can be added to payslips ato advise employees.

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By Ken Morrison
08th Mar 2016 12:53

Scottish Taxpayers

My PAYE Code for two employments and six pensions has no S indicator anywhere.

As I have always lived in Scotland and my SAR shows a Scottish Post Code how can we in Scotland trust HMRC to get the SRIT allocation of tax.

So much for voting to stay part of the UK.

And also what about the slight of not being allowed to use Scots Gaelic when the Welsh are allowed their Cymraeg

Coinneach Mhor

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