PAYE tax table specifications for Scottish Rate of Income Tax

07 November 2016

7 November 2016

Will your payroll software be ready for the possible change in income tax bandwidths from April 2017?

In August of this year we published a news item where HMRC’s Software Developers Support Team (SDST) provided a new draft of the Tax Table Routines specification which includes some new definitions for separate Scottish tax bandwidths.

As part of the implementation of wider devolution for Scotland the Scottish Government will be allowed to set income tax bandwidths that differ from the rest of the UK. These powers will apply from 6 April 2017.

The 2017–2018 tax rates and bandwidths will be announced by the Scottish Government in their Draft Budget which is planned for 15 December. This announcement will still be subject to the Scottish parliamentary approval process which is due to be completed before the start of the tax year.

You may wish to prepare for these potential changes by building this flexibility into your product in advance of the announcement using the PAYE Tax Table Routines specification v15.

The routines in this new version remain unchanged from the earlier draft version that was attached to the news item on 5 August 2016.