Inland Revenue P46 Tax Questions With Notes On Accepting The P46 Form

1. A new employee may not have a P45 due to circumstances of first job, student, first employment in the current financial year, immigrant worker, P45 lost or perhaps not issued by a previous employer or issued late. If a new employee does not give the new employer a P45 on the day employment commences then the employer has a responsibility to ensure the new employee completes a P46 form

Completing the Inland Revenue P46 form is the method an employer uses to advise HMRC about the employment of a new employee who does not have a P45.

2. P46 forms should be sent to HMRC on the first pay day they are paid allowing a short period of time for a new employee who does not have a P45 to obtain one.

3. A new rule was introduced from 6 April 2008 if the employee has ticked either box A or B then the P46 revenue form does not have to be sent to HMRC until that employee earnings reach the lower earnings limit. PAYE records still need to be produced by the employer but official notification to HMRC is not required unless the lower earnings level is exceeded.

Should the earnings of the employee continue to be below the lower earnings limit then the earnings and employment would still be advised to HMRC on the P35 annual employers return.

4. If the new employee does not complete the Inland Revenue P46 form before the first pay day then the new employer should complete section one. Section one includes the employee name and address, date of birth and national insurance number.

5. If the employee does not have a national insurance number then the employer must also advise the job centre. It is important to advise the authorities when the employee does not have a number to avoid illegal employment laws. The P46 revenue form can still be submitted to HMRC without a national insurance number who have the facility to trace the number from the information supplied.

While preferable for the employee to sign the P46 form the P46 tax form can be submitted by an employer without the employee signature.

6. If the employee does not complete the P46 the employer must deduct tax using a BR tax code taxing all earnings and excluding personal tax allowances.

7. The tax code to be applied to new employee earnings is dependent upon when the employee joined and which of the boxes A, B or C are ticked on the P46 tax form.

If box A is ticked then apply the emergency tax code which from 6 April 2008 is 543L and after 7 September 2008 and the new tax code 603L. Tax is deducted on a cumulative basis. If box B is ticked then apply the emergency tax code which from 6 April 2008 is 543L and after 7 September 2008 and the new tax code 603. Tax is deducted on a week 1 or month 1 basis.

If box C is ticked then apply the BR tax code. Income tax is deducted on cumulative basis.

If none of the boxes A, B or C are ticked then apply the BR tax code and deduct tax on a cumulative basis.

8. If the new employee has ticked box D then student loan deductions should be made with effect from the first pay date provided the earnings level for deduction of student loans has been reached. Refer to the student loan deduction tables at Student Loan Table to determine how much should be deducted.

9. P46 forms can be filed online by an employer. When the Inland Revenue P46 form is filed online the employer should also have kept a record of how the information submitted was obtained.

10. Before the P46 Inland Revenue form can be filed online the employer must have obtained the facility to do so by registering with HMRC for a PAYE scheme. The HMRC website contains free software that can be used for this purpose.