07 February 2019 
Caroline Jones, Employment tax director
This article follows an earlier article on the question of strike pay. To recap, following the deduction of pay based on 1/260th of salary the issue of whether teachers should have strike pay withheld based on 1/365th was considered in the 2017 Supreme Court case (Hartley and others v King Edward VI College). There is a suggestion that institutions may be facing back claims for strike pay. These are likely to be small in value but could give rise to a number of claims, including for those who have left employment.
As previously suggested, given the nature of the payments HMRC has indicated that it is not intending to implement a “special arrangement” such as that in place for payment of back dated equal pay claims, where payments are treated as week 53 payments. We have now been invited to comment on draft guidance, which suggests clear that HMRC expects universities to revisit their Full Payment Submissions (FPS) for earlier years and to make Earlier Year Updates (EYU), for each individual, to adjust for tax. NIC will be due when the payment is actually made so will not be subject to EYU.
Additionally, the draft guidance suggests universities will be required to provide HMRC with schedules detailing, total amount of payments made under deduction, including the amount of tax deducted for each relevant year and a summary of the EYU’s. The draft guidance also includes a section on what universities should do where the payments are made for a pre-Real Time Information (RTI) year. RTI was introduced in 2013/14, for the majority of employers (unless you were part of the pilot). BUFDG is intending to respond to HMRC shortly.
