Sir Edward Troup, Ex-Executive Chair and First Permanent Secretary of HMRC has kicked off the second day of the Learn Payroll conference with his key note speech. He begins with a big thank you to payroll professionals. Without payroll collecting PAYE and sending it to HMRC week-on-week, HMRC would not be as efficient as it is.
As always, HMRC is changing and its focus is customer, digital and data. It also has a strong focus on supporting intermediaries, such as employers, in collecting tax on behalf of HMRC.
“The number of people who are self-employed without employers has gone up,” says Troup. “But my cynicism is that many of these people are actually just working within businesses under limited companies.”
The differences in the way that people work is one of the main changes in the past 15 years. And the issue of the changing world of work is raising issues around personal service companies, IR35, disguised remuneration and Umbrella companies.
“It is a complicated landscape,” says Troup. “It is not a stable situation and all of these things will be subject to action.”
“The legal definitions of employment have provided not fit for purpose,” added Troup. “The PAYE net should be a lot wider than it is.”
