Alan Gregory
1 minute length
Posted: 22nd April 2022

IRIS GP Payroll April 2022 Product Update

April 2022 Update

We are constantly striving to enhance the functionality IRIS GP Payroll delivers to its users. This product update provides information on new features, enhancements and fixes delivered in April 2022 and the April 2022 patch release.

Complete release notes are available in IRIS GP Payroll Release Notes

April 2022 Release Version 2022.10

Student Loan Thresholds

We have updated the annual thresholds in line with legislation for the tax year 2022/2023.

  • Plan Type 1 increased from £19,895 to £20,195
  • Plan Type 2 remains at £27,295
  • Plan Type 4 increased from £25,000 to £25,375
  • Postgraduate Student Loans remains at £21,000

Tax Code Changes

Due to all personal allowances remaining at 2021/2022 levels, there is no increase in tax codes for the 2022/2023 tax year.

Statutory Payments, Tax, NI, SSP, SMP, SAP, SPP, ShPP & SPBP

We have updated the rates for tax, NI, and statutory payments for the tax year 2022/2023.

National Minimum Wage / National Living Wage

We have updated the national minimum and living wage rates in line with legislation for the tax year 2022/2023.

AE Parameters

We have updated the AE Parameters, in line with legislation, for the tax year 2022/2023.

P60s

We have updated the P60s for year-end 2021/2022.

National Insurance Changes

NI Holidays for Veterans Employer’s NIC Relief

From April 2021, HMRC announced that there would be a reduction in Employer National Insurance contributions for veterans for twelve consecutive months from the first day of their first civilian employment after leaving the regular armed forces. HMRC has introduced an NI category letter V and the Veteran’s Upper Secondary Threshold (VUST) to cater for the new relief.

If claiming for this relief from April 2021 to March 2022, this needs to be claimed retrospectively from April 2022 onwards. HMRC requires you to pay the Employer National Insurance contributions for veterans for this period in the usual manner.

From April 2022 onwards, the relief can be processed using the software and reported to HMRC via RTI.

Freeports Employer’s NIC Relief

From April 2022, HMRC announced that there would be a reduction in Employer National Insurance contributions for employees working in freeports in their first three years of employment. HMRC has introduced NI category letters F, I, S, and L and the Freeport Upper Secondary Threshold (FUST) to cater for the new relief.

Following these changes in legislation, we have made the following software amendments:

  • Include new NI letters:
    • V – standard category for Veterans
    • F – standard category for employees working in a Freeport
    • I – married women or widows entitled to pay reduced NI working in a Freeport
    • S – employees over state pension age working in a Freeport
    • L – employees entitled to defer paying full NI rate working in a Freeport
  • Add new earnings thresholds for Veteran’s Upper Secondary Threshold (VUST) and Freeport Upper Secondary Threshold (FUST)
  • Add new Date of veteran’s first civilian employment date field

NI Rates

We have updated Setup/ Options | Tax/NI Parameters | Employees and Employers NIC Rates to include the new NI letters V, F, I, S, and L, along with the parameters for Veteran’s Upper

Secondary Threshold (VUST) and Freeport Upper Secondary Threshold (FUST).

Employee Details

We have added the new NI letters V, F, I, S, and L to the software, along with a new Date of veteran’s first civilian employment date field in the Employee Details section.

Reports

We have updated reports to cater for the new NI letters V, F, I, S, and L, along with the parameters for VUST and FUST.

RTI Validation

We have updated RTI submissions to include the new NI letters V, F, I, S, and L.

Import/Export

We have added Date of veteran’s first civilian employment to the Import/Export fields.

Health and Social Care Levy

On 7th September 2021, the Government announced a new 1.25% Health and Social Care Levy to fund investment in the NHS and social care. For the 2022/2023 tax year, the new levy; has been added to National Insurance contributions for working-age employees, self-employed people, and employers. HMRC recommends that you include the following message on your employees’ payslips, where possible:

  • 25% uplift in NICs funds NHS, health & social care

To add a message to your employees’ payslips, go to the Payroll Calculations | Temporary adjustments | Add a Text Broadcast to ALL Payslips screen and enter the text in the Broadcast Text field. To display the text on payslips for future pay periods, select Retain message for future payslips.

The payslip message is only required for the 2022/2023 tax year. From April 2023, the Health and Social Levy will be separate from National Insurance contributions.

Attachment of Earnings – Council Tax (Wales)

Attachment of Earnings

From the tax year 2022/2023, a new Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO); is introduced in Wales. The thresholds are higher than the existing Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Orders and apply to Wales only.

The Welsh Government introduced the new Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) to maintain fairness in the system and reflect changes to the cost of living.

To cater for the new Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO), we have added a new Council Tax – Wales option to the Attachment | Type of Order list.

Reports

We have updated selected reports to cater for the new Council Tax – Wales Attachment of Earnings.

Import/Export

We have added the new Council Tax – Wales Attachment of Earnings to the available fields list in the Import/Export function.

Real Time Information (RTI) Enhancements

Full Payment Submission (FPS)

The FPS schema has been updated for the tax year 2022/2023 in line with government legislation.

Employer Payment Submission (EPS)

We have updated the EPS schema for submissions relating to the tax year 2022/2023.

Earlier Year FPS

We have updated the Earlier Year FPS schema for submissions relating to the tax year 2021/2022, and submissions will accept NI letter V.

The Earlier Year FPS can be submitted for Veterans employed in the 2021/2022 tax year, which will allow you to claim a refund of the Employer’s NI paid from HMRC.

To submit an Earlier Year FPS for 2021/2022 for a Veteran

  1. Go to RTI Submissions | Earlier Year FPS, click Next
  2. From Select Tax Year, choose 2021/2022
  3. Click Select Employee to choose the individual to submit the Earlier Year FPS for, click Next
  4. A confirmation message will be displayed; click Yes to continue
  5. Complete the National Insurance Details fields and any other fields requiring amendment
  6. If the employee had more than one NI rate in the tax year, choose the Multiple NICs button
  7. The Earlier Year FPS – Multiple NI Rates screen will be displayed – complete the fields, as required
  8. If you require a hard copy of the Earlier Year FPS report, click Print
  9. Click Next to view the Earlier Year FPS – Final Confirmation screen
  10. Check the values to be submitted and select Send

Pensions Update

NHS Pension Rates

The Pension Tiers for NHS England/Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are up to date with legislation for 2022/2023.

Changes to NHS Pension Scheme

From April 2022, all existing and future members of the NHS Pension Scheme for all regions will move to the 2015 CARE pension scheme and the previous schemes removed.

End of Year Transfer

During the End of Year Transfer from 2021/2022 to 2022/2023, the software will:

  • Apply NHS pension rates and tiers for the tax year 2022/2023
  • Set all existing members of the NHS Pension Scheme to be in the 2015 CARE NHS Pension Scheme
  • Remove all previous versions of the NHS Pension Scheme

Employee Pension Details

All employees that are members of the NHS Pension Scheme have moved to the 2015 CARE NHS Pension Scheme.

In the Employee Details | Pension Details screen, we have removed the Employee is a member of the pre-April 2008 NHS Pension Scheme and Employee is a member of the April 2008 – March 2015 NHS Pension Scheme options.

Previous NHS Pension Scheme Versions

We have removed any reference to NHS Pension – Pre 2008 and NHS Pension 1995 – 2008 throughout the software.

We have renamed any reference to NHS Pension – Post 2015 throughout the software to NHS Pension Scheme.

Other Improvements

Export Reports

In addition to PDF, you can now export reports in .xls format.

April 2022 Patch Release Version 2022.11

Employment Allowance

We have increased Employment Allowance from £4000 to £5000 for the 2022/2023 tax year.

Please Note: you must install this update prior to completing tax month 1 to ensure the correct Employment Allowance value is used.