Clergy will have received the following letter by email from the Church Commissioners: we are including it here to help any clergy who have lost their email or whose letter did not arrive safely.
If your email address is wrong on your personal details on MyView you can send an email to clergy.payments@churchofengland.org stating your full name, parish and diocese, and five digit URN found on your payslip. State your old and new email address and they will update your record.
Letter Text:
We would like to invite you to complete your 2016-17 Annual Return form to the Commissioners online via MyView to declare your expenditure on heating, lighting, cleaning and garden upkeep costs for last year.
The HLC allowance is part of your stipend that is paid to you outside of tax and National Insurance in reimbursement for the running costs for your official property. In order to continue to benefit from the scheme you need to tell us each year how much you have spent via an Annual Return. These figures will then be used to calculate your monthly HLC allowance and will affect how much tax and national insurance that you pay, so please take care when submitting your figures.
You will need to log onto MyView and follow the link for ‘Annual Return Form’ to submit your figures. There is a link to ‘Annual Return Form Notes’ which you will need to read before you complete the form. Once the form has been submitted, you will receive an email, to this address, to confirm your return has been successful. You will also be able to check the figures you have submitted via your MyView account, under ‘Submitted forms’.
You will need to report your actual expenditure on heating, lighting, cleaning and garden upkeep for the period 01 April 2016 to 31 March 2017. We will also need to give an estimate of your annual expenditure for the current tax year. Please do not include any amounts that have been reimbursed locally e.g. if your PCC make payment to your to help cover the cost of heating, you can only claim tax relief on costs that you have personally incurred. Full guidance on what you can claim for under the scheme can be found on the ‘Annual Return Notes’ and on our website but if you are not sure please contact us before proceeding.
Please note the Commissioners no longer need to know if you receive any local income (e.g. retained fees/chaplaincy) but you must declare such income to your diocesan board of finance (or funding body) as soon as possible so they can ensure you are in receipt of the correct stipend.
If you have not already done so you can sign into MyView here. Full instructions are available to help you log in for the first time and there is a dedicated email address (myviewenquiries@churchofengland.org) if you do have any problems. This email has been sent to the address we have on record for you; if it is incorrect please contact us so we can update our records. This email address will be used to send your password when you log in for the first time or if you need to reset your password so please ensure it is a personal account that only you have access to.
If you are unable to log into MyView you can print a blank form from our website, which you will need to complete and return to us by post. Please ensure that you complete all sections of this blank form, which you will need to print, sign and return via post; we are unable to confirm receipt of individual paper forms. We will not be able to process any incomplete forms.
It is important that you submit these figures as soon as possible, particularly if your claim has changed significantly, to ensure the tax-free allowance we are paying you is based on the latest information. If we do not receive confirmation of these figures by 30 September 2017 your allowance will be suspended. Further information on the HLC scheme can be found here but if you require any further guidance to help you to complete your form please do not hesitate to contact us.
Please note we will not be able to process your form if you leave the payroll or cease to be eligible for the scheme but you would be able to make any adjustments via your tax return.
Yours sincerely
Payroll Services (Clergy Team)
Payroll Services (Clergy Team), Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ
Clergy Team: (020) 7898 1618 Switchboard: (020) 7898 1000
For the latest information please visit our website: https://www.churchofengland.org/more/clergy-resources/clergy-payroll