Do you need to update your employment contracts to reflect holiday entitlement reforms? Plus the self-assessment tax deadline is looming – are you ready to submit yours?
Holiday pay and entitlement reforms
Coming into force from 1 January 2024, the Working Time Regulations, as amended by The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023, introduced reforms that simplify holiday pay and entitlements.
Following Brexit, any European laws that were retained in the UK automatically expired on December 31 unless legislation was brought in to keep them. The Employment Rights Regulations 2023 do just that and are applicable across the UK. As well as reinstating some EU laws, these regulations make several changes to existing laws.
These reforms include changes that affect rates of holiday pay and annual leave. They also cover handling irregular hours and part-year workers, accrual of COVID-19 carryover of leave, and rolled-up holiday pay.
Holiday entitlement
The Regulations define what an irregular hours or part-year worker is and makes changes for how their holiday entitlement for holiday years beginning 1 April 2024 and onwards are accrued.
Employers will need to calculate holiday entitlement for such workers at 12.07% of the hours worked in any pay period. This does not apply to the calculations for regular hours workers.
Holiday pay
The Regulations specify that all full-year workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid statutory holiday entitlement per year. These are split into two pots.
• Four weeks – the original EU leave entitlement – must be paid at the employee’s ‘normal’ rate of pay and the regulations now specify that this includes overtime pay, commission and allowances.
• The remaining 1.6 weeks – an addition made by the UK – only have to be paid at the employee’s ‘basic’ rate of pay.
The government has produced guidance containing examples and calculation methods based on the legal minimums set out in the Regulations.
Of course, many workers have contracts that entitle them to holiday that exceeds the statutory minimum. Or the changes may make the standard holiday clauses used in an employer’s employment contract no longer legal. Businesses are therefore encouraged to first check individual employment contracts, and if necessary, seek independent legal advice.
If you need any help with running your payroll, please get in touch with us. We will be very happy to help you!
See the guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/simplifying-holiday-entitlement-and-holiday-pay-calculations/holiday-pay-and-entitlement-reforms-from-1-january-2024
Self Assessment tax return and payment of tax bill due by 31 January 2024
The deadline for filing Self Assessment tax returns and paying tax bills for the 2022/23 tax year is Wednesday 31 January 2024 at 11:59pm.
HM Revenue and Customs is encouraging taxpayers to get their tax return filed as early as possible so that they can know how much tax they owe and be ready to make the payment by 31 January.
Support is available for taxpayers that are unable to pay in full. However, failing to file and pay tax by the deadline will result in penalties and interest.
If you need any help with filing your Self Assessment tax return, please contact us and we will be happy to help.
Discover Digital Transformation – A free online training programme
Innovate UK BridgeAI is funding an online training course to help businesses and organisations explore digital, data-driven and AI technologies.
The training course is designed with decision-makers in mind, in businesses and organisations of any size in agriculture, creative industries, construction, and transportation. It will help you decide what your organisation needs and put together an action plan for making your business digital ready.
This introductory-level series will explain why and how to implement AI to best benefit your business.
There are five sessions that can be taken individually or as a series. The sessions include:
• Making data work for you
• AI applications in industry
• Modelling: A fundamental capability
• Why digital twins?
• Scalable platforms supporting digital transformation
The 5 sessions are first being run in a weekly series starting Wednesday 24 January 2024. A second series begins on Tuesday 2 April 2024, with a third series commencing Wednesday 18 September 2024.
The training programme is free and you can register on this page: https://iuk.ktn-uk.org/opportunities/discover-digital-transformation-training-programme/?dm_i=2VFU,1FVAJ,8U1M3N,5PJA3,1