New levies and charges
Two new levies on employers come into effect in April 2017.
The Apprenticeship Levy is a charge set at 0.5% of your total payroll costs. It will be payable alongside PAYE and reported to HMRC on your monthly RTI returns. Employers will get an annual allowance of £15,000 to set against the Apprenticeship Levy. This means you will only have to pay the levy to the extent that your payroll costs exceed £3 million per year.
The immigration skills charge is an annual charge of £1,000 (£364 for smaller businesses) for each skilled worker you sponsor to come to the UK from a country outside the European Economic Area. This charge will only apply to permanent workers on a Tier 2 visa and there are exemptions for graduate trainees. If you employ such workers, you will have to pay this charge alongside other visa charges to the Home Office, not to HMRC.