30 October 2003: As part of the present Government's e-business strategy all UK businesses will be required to file their Employer's Annual PAYE returns electronically with the Inland Revenue, either by EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or by the Internet, by the tax year 2009/2010.
Businesses with 250 or more employees have to file electronically by the end of next tax year - 2004/2005.
Businesses with between 50 and 249 employees have to file electronically by the end of the tax year 2006/2007.
Businesses with less than 49 employees have to file electronically by the end of the tax year 2009/2010.
In order to encourage small employers to file electronically the Inland Revenue has introduced a series of incentive payments to be made available over the next five years to all those who file early. Starting next tax year and worth £250 per year in years one and two, then £150, £100 and £75 respectively over the next three years, the incentive payments are worth £825 in total. The first payment of £250 will be made during the summer of 2005, relating to the 2004/2005 tax year (which starts next April).
PayRole, as part of Enable, is the only payroll service provider in the UK to have already successfully filed thousands of our clients by EDI at the end of the tax year 2002/2003. Our electronic filing process is tried and tested.
EDI is currently a substantially faster and more secure electronic transmission system than is the Internet, but the software costs and training involved are prohibitive to small employers - unless they outsource to a payroll service.
As the only EDI-enabled payroll service currently available in the UK, any small employer or business using our services will automatically qualify for the maximum £825 incentive payments over the next five years.
The first incentive payment of £250 available for the tax year 2004/2005 will more than cover the entire cost of a year's payroll service for your first employee from PayRole with the consequence that it makes sense for all employers in the UK to outsource their payroll function to PayRole.
More about PayRole's involvement with EDI can be found on the page 'Enable Ltd; EDI Case History' on the Inland Revenue web site.