From Month 1 of the new tax year (2010//11) PAYE and National Insurance Contributions will have to be paid to HM Revenue & Customs \(HMRC) within the monthly due date of payment, otherwise a penalty surcharge will be applied on the amounts of tax that has not been paid on time.

Where employers have traditionally taken as much credit as possible from the taxman, they face the prospect of paying any arrears for 2009/10 before the due date and then commencing payments for the new tax year. This will have an impact on cash flow.

HMRC recognises that at the current time this may produce hardships and employers that do not think they can pay by the due date should contact the Business Support Payment Service on 08453 021 435 to make payment arrangement with HMRC and thereby avoid incurring penalties.

There may be benefits for employers and employees to have salary sacrifice schemes in place whereby childcare vouchers are offered in lieu of salary. There was discussion that the voucher scheme was to be scrapped but it has now been confirmed that it will be continued for at least a further two years. Employers looking to remunerate their staff in a tax efficient manner could well consider the benefit of offering childcare vouchers.