HMRC are carrying out a review exercise to assess the impact on compliance costs following the Tax Law Rewrite of the PAYE Regulations published in 2003. The final RIA is attached to this article as an Adobe (pdf) document. The Compliance Cost Review programme reviews the compliance cost analysis included within the original published Regulatory Impact Assessment (see below). The review does not revisit the original policy decision to rewrite the PAYE Regulations.
As part of the exercise CIOT Members' comments are being sought in respect of the following:
1) With hindsight, what, if any, effect did the rewritten PAYE Regulations have on compliance costs for your firm?
2) The original impact assessment claimed:
- that the impact on users would be beneficial but low,
- the majority of users rely on the guidance material produced by HMRC and these people would not see any significant change as a result of the rewritten PAYE Regulations,
- users would normally only refer to the Regulations in situations which are not covered in the explanatory material,
- the majority of users already have a well established PAYE operation in place which will be unaffected by the rewrite, and
- users, especially tax advisers, would benefit from the rewritten Regulations because it is clearer and easier to use.
Was this predicted effect in the original impact assessment accurate? If not, in what way was it inaccurate?
3) Even if wrong was it a reasonable prediction given the information available at the time?
4) Could the assessment of compliance costs/savings have been improved in any way?
Please send comments to technical@tax.org.uk (including 'Compliance Cost Review - PAYE Regulations' in the subject line) by 6 October 2006.
Technical Department
020 7235 9381
