If you’re a taxpayer in England you’ll be subject to a couple of changes for the 2019/20 tax year. The tax-free personal allowance has increased from £11,850 to £12,500 and other key rates and threshold changes are set out in the table below:

Details	2019/20	2018/19
Personal allowance	£12,500	£11,850
Employee's and employer's NI becomes due at	£8,632	£8,424
Higher rate tax becomes due at	£50,000	£46,350
Class 2 NI becomes due when profits pass	£6,365	£6,025
Class 2 NI per week	£3.00	£2.95

Pension contributions to rise

The minimum contributions for automatic enrolment pensions continue to increase, with the 2019/20 total minimum contribution of 5% rising to 8%. As before, the employer and employee can choose to pay more than the minimum contributions if they want to.

Date	Employer minimum contribution	Employee minimum contribution	Total minimum contribution
Before 5th April 2018	1%	1%	2%
6th April 2018 - 5th April 2019	2%	3%	5%
6th April 2019 onwards	3%	5%	8%

Student loan thresholds increase

From this month, the interest rates and thresholds of income-contingent student loans have been adjusted.

The new threshold for plan 1 has risen from £18,330 to £18,935 - earnings above £18,935 will be calculated at 9%. For plan 2, the threshold for post 2012 loans will rise from £25,000 to £25,725.

The Department for Education has also introduced a new Postgraduate Loan (PGL) for England and Wales. The threshold for 2019/20 is £21,000, to be repaid at a rate of 6%, deductions collected through the normal PAYE process.

Payslip changes

From 6th April 2019, employers are obliged to include the total number of hours worked on payslips for employees whose wages vary by how much time they’ve worked.

National Living Wage/National Minimum Wage updates

As announced in the 2018 Autumn Budget, the National Living Wage (NLW) has now increased by 4.9% to £8.21 an hour for employees aged 25 and over.

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) has also changed for workers aged 21-24, increasing from £7.38 to £7.70 an hour. The NMW will also rise for those aged 18-20 from £5.60 to £6.15 an hour and from £4.20 to £4.35 for employees under 18.

 

Noel Guilford