It is irrelevant how many PAYE schemes a group of companies or a company with subsidiaries or branches operates. You must decide which one is the ‘employer’.
A holding company has several subsidiaries that have their own
employees. Each subsidiary is liable for its own secondary Class 1
NICs for its employees and has its own PAYE scheme.
In this case, each individual company would be an employer
for SSP purposes and would need to consider if they qualify for
reimbursement of the SSP they pay to their employees based on their
own NICs liability.
A holding company has several subsidiaries but the holding
company engages the employees and then allocates them to the
subsidiaries. For administrative reasons, each subsidiary pays
wages locally and the initial accounting is done locally. However,
this is done on behalf of the holding company, which provides the
necessary resources to pay all the wages. The PAYE schemes are set
up by the holding company that is liable for the employer Class 1
NICs and is ultimately responsible for the payment of SSP.
In this case, the holding company would be the employer and
would need to decide if it qualifies for reimbursement based on the
combined NICs for the organisation including all the subsidiary
companies.
A large retail chain has a number of branches throughout the
country. Although each branch hires and fires its own employees,
wages are paid from the central head office and returns are made to
the HMRC on a number of PAYE schemes.
In this case, the company, not the individual branches,
would be the employer for SSP purposes and would need to decide if
it qualifies for reimbursement under PTS.
