Payroll expert seconded to HMRC for BIK payrolling overhaul

Sara White, Editor, Business & Accountancy Daily. Croner-i

After delaying the original mandatory reporting rollout by a year, HMRC calls in payroll expert for 18-month secondment to help with development of mandatory payroll expensing for businesses.

Mathew Akrigg, policy and research officer at the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP), has been briefed to assist with the move to mandatory payrolling of employee benefits and expenses, due to come into force April 2027. The complex rollout has already been delayed by a year from the original 2026 launch, due to complexity and added admin costs for businesses to change systems for the implementation.

The decision to bring in a senior payroll expert highlights the extremely complex processes being developed by HMRC to ensure the new fully automated system works properly.

Under the new rules, the reporting and payment of income tax and Class 1A NICs on benefits in kind (BIK) will have to be made through payroll software from April 2027.

The original plan was to mandate the reporting requirements from 2026, which would have increased costs for businesses as they would have had to update payroll software, and invest in new systems where they did not use them. But under pressure the government delayed the start date earlier this year in April 2025.

This followed pressure on the Treasury, forcing then minister responsible for HMRC, James Murray, to write to MPs to confirm that a delay was required after intense lobbying from ICAEW, the Administrative Burdens Advisory Board (ABAB), and HMRC’s own Employment and Payroll Group, which brings together leading professional bodies including CIPP, CIOT, ATT, BASDA among others.

According to CIPP, Akrigg’s role will focus on key engagement between HMRC and industry stakeholders, helping to shape policy and practical processes to ensure the move to the new system is smooth, efficient, and beneficial for all parties involved.

He will support the ‘smooth design and implementation of the government’s mandate for the payrolling of employee benefits and expenses’, CIPP said, indicating that much of the work still needs to be done before the system can be rolled out to businesses.

Samantha O’Sullivan, policy lead at the CIPP, said: ‘Mathew’s secondment is a testament to the strength of collaboration between industry and government.

‘His expertise and practical understanding of payroll operations will play a vital role in ensuring that the payrolling of benefits and expenses mandate is designed with the needs of CIPP members, employers, pay professionals, and software providers in mind. Collaboration of this kind is crucial to making sure this significant change is a success for everyone involved.’

Akrigg said he was ‘looking forward to bringing my practical experience and industry expertise to HMRC’. He has worked in the payroll industry for nearly 10 years, both as a payroll supervisor at Liaison Group, a provider of specialist services to the NHS, and at the CIPP since 2021 in a education and policy role. He is qualified MCIPPdip and MAAT.