Payroll, National Insurance and Construction Industry Scheme
NIC, payroll costs, statutory payments, student loans, apprenticeship levy and CIS obligations.
How to study the ATT Qualification
Use Finance Act 2025 for the 2026 tax papers, complete the three foundational CBEs early, apply professional ethics throughout and concentrate option practice on the one paper you will enter.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Payroll compliance combines gross pay, deductions, employer costs, submissions and payment.
Exam cue: Reconcile each payroll component from gross amount to net pay and employer liability.
Concept 2
NIC treatment depends on status, class, thresholds and special rules such as directors.
Exam cue: Check status and special category before applying NIC.
Concept 3
CIS requires contractor status, verification, deduction, statements and returns.
Exam cue: Create a CIS workflow from verification to monthly return.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Confusing employee deduction with employer cost.
Guardrail: Do not use an obsolete tax rate, assume a relief, ignore legal form, submit unsupported information or omit the relevant deadline and ethical response.
Applying ordinary employee timing rules to directors without checking.
Guardrail: Do not use an obsolete tax rate, assume a relief, ignore legal form, submit unsupported information or omit the relevant deadline and ethical response.
Treating CIS deductions as the subcontractor's final tax liability.
Guardrail: Do not use an obsolete tax rate, assume a relief, ignore legal form, submit unsupported information or omit the relevant deadline and ethical response.
Memory anchors
Payroll bridge
Gross pay less deductions gives net pay; add employer costs separately.
NIC class
Status and payment type determine class and payer.
RTI
Report payroll information through the required real-time submissions.
CIS verify
Verify subcontractor status before choosing the deduction rate.
CIS return
Report payments and deductions and give the subcontractor a statement.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
Payroll shows one employee's monthly pay as £4,500. Charge 8% between the £1,048 primary threshold and £4,189 upper limit, then 2% above it. What deduction belongs on the payslip?
An adult employee earns £2,000 in a month. The secondary threshold is £417 and the employer rate is 15%. What employer NIC arises?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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