Apprentice Levy amendment will benefit SMEs

An amendment has been made to the way in which the Apprentice Levy is to be managed.

The amended rules will now allow a group of connected employers the flexibility to decide the proportion of the £15,000 allowance to which each employing company will be entitled. In this context, ‘connected’ means a company is connected with another company if one company controls another, or the same person or persons has control of both companies and in certain other defined circumstances.

A previous draft of the levy deemed that if a group of companies were connected, then only one employing company in the group could claim the £15,000 allowance. However, it has now been accepted that this could lead to a significantly higher number of employers subject to the levy than it had originally intended, and the amendment should now avoid that.

The Chartered Institute of Taxation welcomed the change and said that allowing connected companies to split the £15,000 levy allowance between them will mean they can use the allowance in full, meaning that as long as their combined pay bill does not exceed £3 million, they won’t have to pay any levy at all.

If your firm is part of a connected group and you may be affected, get in touch.