RTI again

A quarter of UK small-to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have never heard of Real-Time Information (RTI) and a third are confused about how it will impact their business, research shows.

The shocking lack of awareness is a concern given that the changes to payroll reporting – the biggest shake up to the system in nearly 60 years - is just six months away.

The findings, from the October 2012 Sage Omnibus survey of over 1,000 UK SMBs, showed over 1 in 10 business (12%) expect RTI will have a negative impact and make it more difficult and time consuming to submit employee information to HMRC. But half (50%) of business owners don’t know when the RTI changes will come into effect.

Introduced from April 2013, RTI will require employers to start providing employee PAYE, National Insurance and Student Loan information to HMRC at point of payment every month, rather than just at year end.

Lee Perkins, Sage UK’s small business division managing director said:

‘RTI represents the biggest change to PAYE reporting for over half a century and it will affect the way every business does things.’

‘HMRC is currently working hard to put it on the radar of everyone, but if you’ve not heard from your payroll software provider on RTI by now you need to be asking some serious questions about their readiness for it.’

The success of RTI for HMRC hinges primarily on the accuracy of the data that employers store about their employees. In recognition of this Sage has developed a series of new features that help employers meet their responsibility to submit accurate and up-to-date information in the right format.