Employment intermediaries reporting requirement

HMRC has published the results of research it commissioned into employment intermediaries’ knowledge of the employment intermediaries reporting requirement.

The resulting report Understanding employment intermediaries responses to the new reporting requirement found:

• knowledge of the reporting requirement was high among fully and partially compliant filers but (perhaps obviously) very low among non-filers;
• non-filers typically relied on accountants/agents – suggesting that ‘awareness levels among accountants and tax agents serving these types of businesses may also need to be raised’; and
• those who were aware of the requirement also had a good knowledge of the specific implications, although there is scope to increase knowledge on the requirement to submit nil returns and to tell HMRC if the business permanently stops supplying workers.

The requirement for employment intermediaries (broadly, agencies and umbrella companies) to report details of all workers they place with clients where they do not operate PAYE on the workers’ payments was introduced on 6 April 2015 by new regs 84E–84H of the PAYE Regulations, SI 2003/2682.