Our blogs

What the pension change means for salary sacrifice

What the April 2029 pension changes actually mean for salary sacrifice

There is a change coming to pension salary sacrifice that does not get nearly enough attention, and April 2029 has a habit of feeling a long way off right up until it is not. From 6 April 2029, National Insurance...

New tax exempt benefits

New tax exemptions for workplace benefits

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...

hidden costs of inhouse payroll

The hidden costs of in-house payroll

Why outsourcing makes financial sense When you receive a quote for managed payroll, it is easy to view it as a brand-new business expense. This usually happens because you are comparing it against a falsely low internal cost base. Many...

Payroll Simplified - payrolling of benefits

Payroll Simplified – the mechanics of payrolling benefits in kind

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...

5 common salary sacrifice mistakes

How to avoid the most common salary sacrifice mistakes

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...

Grant Waters joins Ascend Payroll

Welcome on board, Grant Waters

We’re delighted to welcome Grant Water to the team as Payroll Professional.. Grant brings a broad base of payroll and tronc experience to Ascend, having worked across corporate payroll and specialist tipping schemes for clients spanning healthcare, hospitality and beyond....

George Serls Joins Ascend s Public Sector Pension Specialist

George Serls joins Ascend Payroll as Public Sector Pension Specialist

We’re delighted to welcome George Serls to the team as our Public Sector Pension Specialist. George brings a career’s worth of payroll and pensions expertise to Ascend, with particular depth in the education sector, where pension schemes like Teachers’ Pensions...

The new data protection complaints law is live. Here’s what it means for you, and why our clients can relax.

On 23 June 2026, a new legal duty landed on every organisation in the UK that handles personal data. If you employ people, that means you. The rule itself is short. You have to give people a clear way to...

Payrolling of benefits in kind

Payrolling of benefits – five things you need to do before April 2027

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...

Fair Work Agency

The Fair Work Agency is here – what it means for your payroll

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’...

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