The Income Tax (Electronic Communications) (Incentive Payments) Regulations 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations provide for incentive payments to be made to individuals and employers who submit returns to the Inland Revenue using electronic communications.

Regulation 1 provides for citation and commencement and regulation 2 for interpretation.

Regulation 3 provides that an incentive payment of £10 shall be made to an individual who submits a personal return under section 8 of the Taxes Management Act 1970 and satisfies certain conditions that may be imposed in a direction to be given by the Board of Inland Revenue (“the Board”). The regulation also provides for withdrawal and recovery of the incentive payment where not all of the conditions are satisfied by the individual.

Regulation 4 provides that an incentive payment of £50 shall be made to an employer who submits an end of year PAYE return using electronic communications. As with regulation 3, certain conditions may be imposed in a direction to be given by the Board and the regulation provides for withdrawal and recovery of the incentive payment where not all of the conditions are satisfied by the employer.

Regulation 5 provides that an incentive payment of £50 shall be made to an employer who pays working families' tax credit or disabled person’s tax credit to one or more of his employees and submits by means of electronic communications an end of year PAYE return recording the total tax credit paid to his employees in the year. As with regulations 3 and 4, certain conditions may be imposed in a direction to be given by the Board and the regulation provides for withdrawal and recovery of the incentive payment where not all of the conditions are satisfied by the employer.

The directions referred to above will be made in February (regulation 3 direction) and April (regulations 4 and 5 directions) 2001. Copies of the directions will be available on the Inland Revenue website at http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk or may be obtained from Fatima Chowdhury, Inland Revenue Cross-Cutting Policy, Room 439, 22 Kingsway, London WC2B 6NR.