Last Thursday, the Government announced an increase in Social Insurance payments which is effective from 1st July 2021. The information was released in this press release at this link. It has also been reported extensively on GBC News and the local media.
We have just released an update to EasyPay to include the new rates.
We therefore ask all EasyPay users to update to EasyPay V19.82. Users can update automatically by going to the help menu at the top and clicking the option to Check For Updates. If your system has not been updated in a long time, you may need to install the update manually. For details visit the downloads page of our website at www.easypay.gi
A copy of the full table of the new Social Insurance rates is here.
Upcoming Tax Changes
After a very challenging year, it is expected that there may be further changes announced shortly in relation to Tax.
It is likely that any changes will be announced in the Chief Minister’s Annual Budget Speech. This is expected to take place in Gibraltar Parliament within the next 2 weeks.
As soon as we hear any official announcement of the upcoming changes, we will of course work to incorporate these changes into EasyPay ASAP.
End Of The Payroll Year
Time has flown by and here we are at the end of another payroll year. The payroll year ends 30th June 2021.
All employers will need to submit their annual statement (P8 File) electronically by 31st July 2021.
Before submitting the file electronically, all employers should first check their payroll data after completing their last payroll for the current tax year. The easiest way to check the payroll data is to run the old report “Form P8 Page 2” under Company Reports on the Payroll screen.
If this looks ok, the option to generate the file for submission to the tax office is under the drop down Payroll Options menu at the top of the payroll screen. Under Tax Year End, there is an option to do Online Tax Submission. You will just need to enter a few details and then you can click the button to Generate Tax Submission file. This file will need to be submitted to the tax office website at https://tax.egov.gi/uploads
If the file is rejected, you will receive an email with a list of rejection reasons. These could be a number of common issues.
Examples of common issues are:
An employee did not notify the payroll department that their social insurance code changed.
An employee turned 60, but their social insurance code did not get amended in payroll to PN.
An employee tax reference number is incorrect.
A student is on Social Insurance code SW but did not request SW status.
You will need to rectify these issues in your payroll and then submit the file again.
Export To P8 Tool
Along with the options to Generate Tax Submission File, there is an option to “Export To P8 Tool”
This exports a special formatted CSV file that can be used to upload the information into the Tax Office P8 Tool. This is a tool the tax office provides to perform manual tax submissions. The tool is available at the following link: https://tax.egov.gi/uploads/downloads/p8.xlsm
This option is provided, because there are a few scenarios where companies have had difficulty with their submission and have found it easier to do manually. The common scenarios are:
1. The company has multiple payrolls that need to be submitted together. (For example, adding payrolls for annual directors’ compensation or pension earnings)
2. There have been a complicated set of payments for BEAT measures.
BEAT Measures
We had hoped to send a number of newsletters throughout the year regarding BEAT updates. However we did not want to introduce further confusion.
BEAT Measures throughout the payroll year from 1st July 2020 to 30th June 2021, have essentially involved financial assistance to Employers only. This means that these employers have largely run their payrolls as normal, with the normal rules for tax and social insurance. This is in contrast to last year where there were complicated rules for the BEAT assistance given to employees.
We are therefore expecting the majority of the Employers claiming BEAT to have no major issues with their end of year submission this year.
We have added a warning message to EasyPay to advise if an employer has accidentally used the BEAT Measures from the previous tax year in this year’s payroll. If this message pops up, then the user should run the BEAT Report (under Payroll / Period Reports) to see if BEAT Measures have been used on any payslip this year. If any payslips appear on this report, then these will need to be corrected. After correcting the payslips, you will need to disable the warning message in the Settings menu at the top. It’s under Company Settings / Payroll tab / COVID-19 Measures.
EasyPay Support
As is normal at this time of year, we are already receiving a high volume of support requests. These mainly relate to end of year processes. It can be difficult to reach us by telephone if you need support. If you require support, please send an email with the details of your issue to your usual support email address and we will respond ASAP.