Apprenticeship Levy - what you need to know

The Apprenticeship Levy (the Levy) is here, and the Government hopes that this will create 3 million new apprentices by 2020. With its implementation there are a number of questions that are being posed by employers about the Levy.

Firstly let’s put down some top-line facts about the Levy:

1. It was introduced on 6th April 2017
2. The Levy is only payable by employers with a pay bill of over £3 million per annum, which is based on total employee earnings subject to class I secondary NICs.
3. The Levy will be calculated as 0.5% of the pay bill.
4. All employers will receive an annual allowance of £15,000 to offset against the Levy. Therefore if you have a pay bill of exactly £3 million per annum, 0.5% of 3 million is equal to £15,000 therefore what you pay as a Levy is what you receive back in allowance, requiring you to pay no Levy at all.
5. The £15,000 allowance is available to employers for use for the training and developing of apprentices. Employers will be able to choose and pay for the appropriate apprenticeship training they require, rather than be driven by apprenticeship training providers
6. It is the employer’s responsibility to tell HMRC how much you owe and to pay the Levy.

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