31 Jan Payday Filing
If you are an employer, you have probably seen the PR efforts of IRD in relation to payday filing. IRD are introducing this with much fan-fare and have held a roadshow, webinars, seminars, visits to employers, direct mail and phone calls to employers.
Despite all this PR, the change they are making is relatively simple: rather than sending your pay information (IR345 and 348 forms/EMS and EDF forms) each month via myIR or post, you will do it each pay day.
All the major payroll software companies are making the necessary changes to their software and we expect that many of them will incorporate filing the new paperwork into their software platform.
It is our understanding that IRD were relatively late to the party with providing the necessary specifications to the payroll software companies, so many of them haven’t yet completed building the necessary functionality. However, all of the ones that we deal with say they will have it ready to roll on time.
If you are still managing payroll ‘the old fashioned way’ and calculating it manually, this is a good opportunity to change. This is one more reason to switch to a payroll software. There are a few that we recommend depending on your circumstances. If you want some help figuring out what you need to manage your payroll, get in touch.
Why are IRD making this change? The official line is ‘to give employees more certainty over their taxes’. Anecdotally, I have never spoken to a staff member who has wanted more certainty over how much tax they have paid. It strikes us that this is more of an information gathering exercise.
