Employer Bulletin: UK Transition Special Edition
22 January 2021
HMRC has published a UK transition special edition Employer Bulletin, which contains a wealth of information relating to new rules following the end of the transition period, on 31 December 2020.
The key areas relate to:
- Trading with Europe
- Business travellers
- Social security coordination
Of key concern to payroll professionals will be the new rules on social security coordination.
New rules on social security coordination
Sending employees to work in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland
From the end of the transition period, social security coordination rules changed for employers who send people to work in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
Individuals who work in the EU, Norway or Switzerland will only be required to pay into one country’s social security scheme at a time, and this will ordinarily be in the country in which the work takes place. If an individual is only working temporarily in the EU, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, or Liechtenstein, then they may be able to obtain a certificate or document from HMRC to continue paying National Insurance Contributions (NICs) in the UK. This means that they are not required to pay social security contributions abroad.
There is guidance available online relating to where an individual will be required to pay social security contributions.
Sending employees to work in the UK
Where an employer sends people to work in the UK, employees will only be required to pay into one country’s social security scheme at a time. This will often be in the UK, if this is where the work takes place.
Where they are only working temporarily in the UK, they may be able to get a certificate or document to continue paying social security contributions in the EU, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, or Liechtenstein. This would subsequently mean that they do not need to pay social security contributions in the UK.
There is also guidance available that shows where these employees will be required to pay social security contributions.
CIPP comment
The latest edition of the Bulletin has been published in HTML format, to enable HMRC to meet the requirements of the Public Sector Accessibility Regulations. All future Bulletins will be presented in the same way. The CIPP would welcome any comments on the new style of the Bulletin, which will then be passed on to HMRC. Please send your feedback to the Policy team, at [email protected]. Thank you, as always, in advance.
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