Benjamin Franklin is famously quoted as saying "nothing is certain but death and taxes" 

For anyone involved in payroll you can add "payroll changes" to that quote as there is always something which changes every year and it is normally around April 1st.

This year is no different with Inland Revenue announcing a number of changes coming into effect on April 1st rated to PAYE. These include:

The two big ones from our perspective are:

1) Employee details

You will be asked to provide more information from employees such as hours paid, if you have it. This will assist with managing entitlements such as Working for Families tax credits. Reporting this information will be voluntary and only when you file through payroll software or myIR.

While will be voluntary in the short term you be assured it will become compulsory in time so you may want to have a chat to your payroll provider to ensure you can handle this.

2) New payment options

There will be new payment options when filing in myIR, including the option to pay at the same time you file if you choose to. The due dates for payments haven't changed.

This is a very practical idea for some employers who want to stay on top of their PAYE commitments but we are not sure how popular it will be with many SME's who use PAYE as cashflow.

3) Others include:

Notifications will be grouped

Notifications such as requests to change employee tax codes, start or stop employee deductions or for errors that need to be fixed will now be grouped and sent weekly as needed. They will also be grouped by each employee.

Employee details

• The "New Employee Details" (IR346) and the "KiwiSaver Enrolment" (KS1) will be combined into one "Employee Details' form, both in myIR and on paper. You will only need to provide a KiwiSaver status for new employees. It will no longer be collected for existing employees.
• You will be required to supply an employee's first and last name when completing new employee details as well as the name they will be known by in your payroll if it is different.
• We will notify you in advance of when an employee's student loan is almost repaid – telling you the final deduction amount and their new tax code.

New fields in the Employment Information return

New fields will be added to the Employment Information (EI) return including:

• employee share income (ESS),
• extra compulsory deductions for student loans (SLCIR),
• and extra voluntary deductions for student loans (SLBOR).

If it applies you will need to complete these fields instead of using a separate tax code on an additional line on the EI.