At Ascend, we spend our days buried in payroll data, so we’re used to spotting the small errors that quietly turn into big problems years down the line. National Insurance is a classic example. Get a few years wrong, and the impact doesn’t show up on a payslip – it shows up decades later, in
Why every employee should check their State Pension record this year Read More »
The Fair Work Agency has published its first delivery plan, covering 2026 to 2027. For payroll teams, this is more than another piece of employment law reading. It’s the clearest signal yet of how enforcement of pay, tips and holiday entitlement is about to change shape. Here’s what’s in the plan, and what it means
The Fair Work Agency’s first delivery plan – what it means for payroll and troncs Read More »
Payrolled Benefits Payrolling benefits in kind is supposed to make life easier. Tax gets collected through the payroll as you go, rather than clawed back later through a tax code change. That only works, though, if you actually know what the benefit is worth at the point you run payroll. For a fair number of
Adjusting estimated payrolled benefits after the tax year ends Read More »
The 2026 umbrella crackdown If your business relies on agency workers or contractors, you might assume that how they get paid is entirely the responsibility of the recruitment agency or their chosen umbrella company. For years, many businesses have taken a hands-off approach to their extended workforce’s payroll. However, the landscape has shifted dramatically. With
Are you liable for your agency’s mistakes? Read More »
Employment Rights Act and Continuity of service Continuity of service is one of those concepts that sits quietly in the background of employment law until the moment it matters enormously. It can be the difference between an employee having real protection against dismissal and having almost none. And with the Employment Rights Act 2025 now
Continuity of service and the Employment Rights Act – what’s actually changing Read More »
As an employer, you want to look after your team’s health and wellbeing. Offering to cover the cost of routine healthcare like eye tests and seasonal flu vaccinations is a brilliant way to show you care. But historically, the tax rules made this generous gesture surprisingly complicated to process. The problem with the old rules
New tax exemptions for workplace benefits Read More »
From 6 April 2027, payrolling benefits in kind will stop being a choice and become the default for most employers. If you’ve relied on the P11D process for years, the bigger question isn’t why this is happening. It’s how the new system actually works. How mandatory payrolling of benefits in kind replaces the P11D lag
Payroll Simplified – the mechanics of payrolling benefits in kind Read More »
Salary sacrifice schemes look simple on paper. Reduce the salary, provide the benefit, process the payroll on the lower figure. What is there to get wrong? Quite a lot, as it turns out. After years of working with businesses across a wide range of sectors, Paul Chappell, our Head of Legislation and Compliance, has seen
How to avoid the most common salary sacrifice mistakes Read More »
Mandatory payrolling of benefits in Kind (BiKs)comes into effect on 6 April 2027. But on 15 June 2026, HMRC confirmed that the shape of that deadline will change considerably -: rather than mandating payrolling for all benefits at once, the rollout will happen in two phases. What the phased approach means Phase 1 From 6
Payrolling of benefits – five things you need to do before April 2027 Read More »
If you have been keeping one eye on employment law over the last year or so, you will have seen the Fair Work Agency coming. It launched on 7 April 2026, and for the first time, the enforcement of workers’ rights in the UK sits under a single roof, with a real budget and a
The Fair Work Agency is here – what it means for your payroll Read More »
