(1) Subject to the following provisions of this regulation, an employer is a small employer where the amount of his contributions payments for the qualifying tax year did not exceed £15,000.
(2) For the purposes of this regulation, the amount of an employer’s contributions payments shall be determined without regard to any deductions that may be made from them under section 9 of the Act or under any other enactment or any instrument.
(3) Where in the qualifying tax year an employer has contributions payments in one or more but less than 12 of the income tax months, the amount of his contributions payments for that tax year shall be estimated by adding together all of those payments, dividing the total amount by the number of those months in which he has those payments and multiplying the resulting figure by 12.
(4) Where in the qualifying tax year an employer has no contributions payments, but does have such payments in one or more income tax months which fall both—
(a) in the tax year in which the specified day falls, and
(b) before the specified day or, where there is more than one such day in that tax year, before the first of those days,
then the amount of his contributions payments for the qualifying tax year shall be estimated in accordance with paragraph (3) above but as if the amount of the contributions payments falling in those months had fallen instead in the corresponding tax months in the qualifying tax year.
(5) Paragraph (6) below applies where an employer has made two or more elections under regulation 2A of the Income Tax (Employments) Regulations 1973 to be treated as a different employer in respect of each of the groups of employees specified in the election.
(6) The different employers covered by each of the elections of the employer first mentioned in paragraph (5) above shall be treated for the purposes of section 9(1B) to (1E) of the Act as one employer.
