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Notifying HMRC of employees’ hours worked – all change but not just yet!

In our April 2024, Employer Focus article ‘Notifying HMRC of employees’ hours worked – all change’ we advised that from April 2025, employers would be required to provide HMRC with more detailed employees’ hours data through their PAYE Real Time Information returns. However, due to delays caused by the General Election, HMRC have confirmed that this information will now not start to be required until April 2026 at the earliest.

As a reminder, the changes will require employers to provide HMRC with the total number of hours paid for each employee within that pay period where that information is held. The figure for employee hours will depend on whether the employee is paid an hourly rate of pay, or via a contract which specifies a number of hours or a combination of the two in some cases. Where that information is not held, employers will be required to provide the reason by selecting one or more relevant descriptions from a list of:

  • statutory payments paid through payroll such as Statutory Sick Pay
  • taxable Benefits in Kind such as a company car or other employee benefit processed through payroll instead of reported to HMRC at the end of the tax year
  • redundancy payments and similar termination payments made when an employment ceases
  • employees who are paid by measure of output (e.g. piece work, activities undertaken)
  • officeholders such as directors or public positions not subject to contractual terms mentioning hours worked

The deferral of the start date is welcomed, and will provide time for businesses, employers, and software providers to prepare for the revised implementation date. The ATT also hope that HMRC will use this time to reflect on the need for the provisions, which we feel will increase costs with no tangible benefits to all employers and have unclear benefits to Government.

 

This article reflects the position at the date of publication shown above. If you are reading this at a later date you are advised to check that that position has not changed in the time since. 

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