Has anyone got their head around the new UK ‘auto-enrolment pension’ regulations yet?
I am the director of my company and I employ my wife part time to do bookkeeping. The company pays us both a pension. From what I can understand I have to:
-choose an auto enrollment pension scheme for the future hires we don’t plan to have
-write to my employee
-fill in the certificate of compliance
-carry on paying our pensions as before
Is that right?
You know a lot more than me!
All I know is, the rules dont come into effect till 2017, so Im planning to bury my head in the sand till then 
You face a possible fine if you haven’t fulfilled the requirements by that date. So I wouldn’t start thinking about it then!
What effect does it have on a limited company with one employee (me) who is also a director?
For single director - you don’t have to do anything… except tell them you don’t have to do anything!
Search “only director of my own company” here
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/automatic-enrolment-enquiries.aspx#tog-content-20757
@andy - Is your wife classed as a “Director”? If Yes and NEITHER or ONLY ONE of you has an employment contract then you don’t have to do anything except tell them that you don’t have to do anything.
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/employers/what-if-i-dont-have-any-staff.aspx
I have done some more research.
She isn’t a director. Apparently that means I have to auto enroll her in a new company pension, even if she already has a pension and doesn’t want a new one. So I will have to set up a pension which she will then probably immediately opt out of. Sheesh.
The other option is to make her a director. Then I just have to notify the pension people that we are exempt. That may be the best option.
But then isn’t there extra paperwork, like filling out yearly returns for her?
You fill out a yearly return per compamy, not per director. She is already listed on the return as company secretary. So its not really extra work.
Best option make her a director I think - just have to fill in a form at Companies House.
Thanks. This is actually the case in our business.
So has anyone received one of these letters yet so they can actually go through the response?
Yes, I had a letter. There is some online questionnaire you can do to tell you what your duties and dates are.
Yes, although you need the code on the letter to use them… maybe I’m getting mixed up.
Now I’m worried the letter has been misdelivered or misfiled in the bin.
Got my letter today. It seems you only need to auto enroll if you are paying above £833/month. See here:
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/checking-who-to-enrol.aspx
Since I pay my wife the legal minimum wage (£671), there is no need to enroll her, yet.
@shantnu Being pedantic 671 is not not legal minimum wage (thats an hourly rate) - its the National Insurance Primary Threshold (NIC PT) which is when you start paying employer NICs.
However you can actually pay slightly less tax if you pay more than this and make use of the Employment Allowance (assuming you don’t have a half dozen other employees) http://www.kfaccounting.co.uk/why-is-my-directors-salary-such-a-strange-amount/
You are correct, of course!
Just wanted to give this a bump for any UK-based businesses that haven’t thought about it. I have made my wife a director, so I just intend to claim exemption for my company after the ‘staging date’ (1-May-17 for us).
So to confirm - your understanding is that because she is a director (without an employment contract I believe), not an employee and you have no other employees then you can claim exemption? Have I got that right?
(I hope so as I did exactly the same late last year!).
Yes. But I can’t remember if we ever did a contract when she was first an employee.