HMRC Offers ‘holiday’ for NICs

HM Revenue & Customs is urging new businesses to take advantage of a government scheme which it says could save them thousands of pounds in staffing costs.

The ‘Regional Employer National Insurance Contributions Holiday’ offers significant reductions in employer NICs for new businesses in service, manufacturing and other key industries who meet certain criteria in specific regions.

Under the three-year scheme, eligible businesses can take a 12-month ‘NICs holiday’ for each of the first 10 employees they hire in their first year of business, up to a maximum of £5,000 per employee.

HMRC calculates new businesses who take advantage of the scheme could save up to £50,000 in total. So far, more than 6,000 businesses have applied for the scheme, and HMRC is to write to 144,000 new businesses over the next few weeks to encourage further uptake.