Asked by: Sarah Atherton (Conservative - Wrexham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason there is not a direct debit option on the HMRC online account website to help employers (a) logging and (b) paying employee contributions that remain constant throughout the year.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Employers can pay their PAYE/NIC liability by Direct Debit. However, it is currently only possible to make single Direct Debit payments.
This is because the amount owed can include elements which do not have to be reported to HMRC until too close to the payment deadline to allow HMRC to automatically collect tax due by Direct Debit. Even the most straightforward employer schemes may have variances in the amount due to HMRC throughout the year meaning a continuing Direct Debit for a set amount would not be appropriate.
HMRC do recognise the benefits of enabling employers to pay this way and are looking at how they can overcome these issues in order to allow employers to set up a recurring Direct Debit.