The Umbrella Companies Blog Archive: March 2009
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Today I think we've had a bit of an object lesson in claiming only legitimate expenses with Jacqui Smith "mistakenly" (artful use of inverted commas there by the BBC, bravo) claiming two adult movies on commons expenses. Now as much as it's fun to dwell on thoughts about whether or not anyone could blame Mr. Smith for watching those movies or who indeed actually did the watching, that's not the issue.

The issue is that it appears there is a belief that the MPs expenses form part of their remuneration package and not "expenses incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of [her] duties". That's a phrase that our umbrella company employees will be very familiar with, as it's the declaration that they and everyone claiming business expenses has to make.

The difference here is that the items MPs can claim is exceedingly loose, and consequently open to misuse/abuse. I think anyone would be tempted to pad out a claim if they had a £250 limit on unreceipted expenses, and don't even get me started on second houses. Rather than don't claim, the message here seems to be don't get caught. Whatever happened to leading by example?

I offer you a simple solution, and I am sure the irony won't escape you; give us at Gabem the MPs expense claims, let us go over them and I guarantee that at the end of it all we'll have saved you, me and the rest of the country some money.

Hugo
30/03/2009

I was hoping to come up with something interesting today, but all anyone seems to be talking about is economic doom and gloom, which I think we are all a little sick of about now. We do have some good news on the horizon but that will have to wait until early next week. For now I am going to stick to the facts, the things that are looming and need to be done.

The expense deadline for the end of the financial year is next week, any expenses submitted for 2008/09 after Thursday 2nd of April will have to be reclaimed direct from HMRC. It's much easier just to send them in I promise.

We're still getting a lot of questions about end of year documents, primarily P60s. The deadline for sending them out is the 31st of May, and they will all be sent out by then. You will only receive a P60 if you finish the year employed by Gabem, if you requested your P45 that takes the place of your P60, it's a case of one or the other.

Lastly we have the upcoming Easter bank holidays, as always the offices are shut on the bank holiday itself, but the rest of the week it's business as usual. All I would say is get your hours in early so we can invoice them early, as the last thing any of us want is a delayed payment.

I promise to not only have interesting news early next week, but will aim to have another Legal Bits for you, and a post to our Agency News page as well.

Hugo
27/03/2009

Those of you visiting the site as recruiters rather than recruitees may have noticed something new in the Agencies section of the site, we now have an Agency News page! At the moment it contains the article that's featuring in Recruitment International this month, but in future we'll be updating it once a month and will follow similar lines to the ever popular Susan's Legal Bits, but rather than dealing with contractor issues will deal with the issues facing agencies and companies, and the potential pitfalls of the ever changing payroll service industry.

We've also been working on another service for our CIS and self-employed contractors, this service is an expense service designed to streamline your record keeping and make your end of year submissions simpler. At the moment we're restricting the people it's open to as we test our systems, but it should be live and open for all within the next month or so, and as always I will keep you posted.

We've had quite a few updates this week not least of which was Susan's somewhat belated Legal Bits; this month covering the subject of P45s and more on The Agency Workers Directive. I have also added the notice we sent out today detailing our easter opening times, more on end of year documents and expenses in general

We also finally have a permanent page for our Recommend a Friend and Return to Gabem offers, so make sure you take advantage of them.

Hugo
20/03/2009

Time for another public service announcement this week, as there have been a number of things that haven't deserved a whole post by themselves, but needed to be covered regardless.

It's probably best to get the official bits and pieces out of the way first. April is looming once again, not nearly so ominously as previous years due to the tax changes being declared back in October, but bringing with it changes that have to be made nonetheless.

You'll find several changes that affect you, the first and most obvious is the change in the single person tax code (the one that most of us have) from 603L to 647L hopefully this means that we will all be a little better off this coming year. Additionally your holiday entitlement will increase from 24 days to 28 days (from April 2009), this being the final stage to ensure that all workers are entitled to the 8 Bank Holidays together with 20 days in a full worked year.

Another important matter, and I know I have gone on about it is your holiday pay for this financial year, if you haven't claimed yours by the end of this month it's lost (holiday pay cannot be carried forward), I cannot stress this enough.

Expenses for this year need to be submitted in week commencing 6th April, in order to be paid with your final wage for this financial year. If you don't have a wage that they can be applied to we'll issue you with a statement of expenses so you can claim them back directly from HMRC. I encourage you to get them in as early as possible so that this doesn't happen, it will save trouble all round.

We've had some calls about end of year documents, we have made preparations to get them out, but all I can tell you is that they will all have been sent out by the deadline at the end of May.

That's about it, I'll be pushing Susan for a new "Legal Bits" today, and I'll keep you updated on when that happens.

Hugo
12/03/2009

KPMG have published a document this week about a new HMRC plan for subsistence expenses. The idea is to create a standardised system, similar to that of a dispensation, which any employer can use without having to go to the trouble of applying for permission beforehand.

Although it's limited to just subsistence payments, it's a fantastic idea, not least because we here at Gabem have been pressing for this for a long time. The reason this development is such a positive step is because it creates a "level playing field" in the industry. It means that no matter who you work for the amount you can claim remains the same. This isn't a "carte blanche" affair, employers will still have to meet certain requirements to participate, the most basic of which is proof that an expense has been incurred.

In addition to the direct benefits to contractors and employees in general, there is a potential additional indirect benefit in the form of reduced running costs within HMRC itself. Administering dispensations is time consuming. They have to be negotiated set up and then applied to each company in turn. With the standardised system, fewer dispensations will be applied for and one rule will apply to everyone, reducing the amount of work it takes when processing. All of which will save us money in the long term, and we're all for that.

Hugo
05/03/2009