AUTO ENROLMENT FOR THE SMALLER BUSINESS
Recently the TPR’s office made an announcement that a business is exempt from AE where it has no “workers” or “employees” in the normal sense of the word.
Representative bodies have been pressing TPR for clarification regarding the position of a business which has a PAYE scheme, and hence will have been given a “staging date” for the purposes of AE, but whose only participants in the payroll are the business owners themselves.
They have payroll entries to ensure they can draw funds from the business on a regular basis and protect their state retirement pension position but have no other relationship with the business except as owners and probably directors.
TPR confirmed that as long as the business has no one on its payroll except for its owners it has no obligations under AE. Since none of the members are “staff” the AE process does not have to apply to them.
It will be up to the owners to determine if they wish to enrol themselves in an eligible pension scheme and it is for this reason the process which has been decided is a little less than satisfactory.
TPR writes to each and every business about 12 months prior to the staging date providing key information and guidance about the need to prepare for the enrolment of its staff. It is unlikely that close companies will receive anything different to other businesses.
Here at Magenta we have a note of all our clients’ staging dates and a calendar note to contact them 12 months before that date to discuss whether auto enrolment is applicable. We are also fully conversant with the process and can assist through the whole procedure.