Small firms offered £75 to file online

Small businesses are being offered £75 as an incentive to file paper-free employer annual returns for 2008-09

The tax-free payment will be made by HMRC to firms with fewer than 50 employees, if they submit their details online by 19 May.

To qualify for the incentive, employers must digitally file a completed P35 and a completed form P14 for at least one member of staff.

Agents, tax advisers and payroll bureaux can file on behalf of firms, who will still qualify for the £75.

To be able to file online, businesses must first register with HMRC's PAYE Online for Employers service and then wait for up to a week for a PIN.

Support and advice is available online from the Revenue site’s dedicated PAYE section.

Online filing incentives were introduced following Lord Carter's review of payroll services, published in 2001, which recognised that some employers would incur costs in the move to paper-free filing: by purchasing payroll software, for example.

Categories: News , Admin , Employees , Income Tax