April is always the time when a glut of new laws come into force changing you and your employees rights. We have rounded up the 5 biggest changes coming into force in April 2019.
1. National minimum wage increase
The national minimum wage shall increase with effect from 1 April 2019. This shall affect over 2 million workers - read more in our post here.
2. Changes to income tax
From 6 April 2019, the tax free allowance shall increase by £650 to £12,500. This shall save people around £130 in tax annually.
The threshold at which the 40% tax rate kick in shall also increase from £46,350 to £50,000, thereby saving higher band earners up to £730 per year.
3. Higher pension contributions
From 6 April 2019, employers shall have to increase the pensions contributions from 2% of salary to 3%. Likewise, employees shall have to increase their contributions from 3% of their salary to 5%.
4. New payslip obligations
From 6 April 2019, employers shall have to provide anybody classed as a 'worker' with payslips. This could potentially include people who are self employed contractors and freelancers.
Employers will also have to ensure that the payslips they provide includes details of:
gross salary paid;
net salary paid;
itemised deductions; and
details of variable hours.
5. EU citizens must apply to stay in the UK
The government has now officially launched the EU Settlement Scheme, the process that EU citizens must go through in order to remain in the UK post Brexit. Over the next year, over 3.5 million EU citizens shall need to register with the scheme in order to remain in the UK beyond June 2021.