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- A No Bull Podcast
- Accounting & Finance Expertise
- ACCOUNTING ADVISORY
- Advisory
- Alice Stephenson – Founder & CEO, Stephenson Law
- All News
- ALLSTARS EARLY CAREER PROGRAMMES
- APPRENTICES
- April Bembridge – Chief People Officer, Cooper Parry
- Are You Claiming The Right Amount? Gated
- AUDIT – WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
- Audit and Assurance
- AUDIT FOR AIM LISTED COMPANIES
- B CORP
- Bundle and Pricing Options
- BUSINESS SERVICES INSIGHTS
- BUSINESS STRUCTURING
- Business Support And Grants
- Business Tax
- CAPITAL ALLOWANCES
- CAPITAL GAINS TAX
- Careers – Our Roles
- Careers Contact Us
- Careers Trainees FAQs
- Charities
- Construction And Property
- Contact Thank You
- Contact Us
- COOKIE POLICY
- Cooper Parry Book Club
- Cooper Parry Event
- CORPORATE AUDIT
- Corporate Finance
- Corporate Finance – What Our Clients Say
- CORPORATE FINANCE DEALS
- Corporate Finance News & Insights
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- Covid-19 Collaboration-news
- CP Futures
- CP Innovation
- CP INNOVATION – WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
- CP INNOVATION FULL PAGE. – DRAFT
- CP Tech 100
- CPERS: COOPER PARRY ENQUIRY RESOLUTION SERVICE
- Creative Tax Reliefs
- CULTURE
- DIVERSITY POLICY
- Early Stage To SME- WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
- Ecommerce
- Eddie Latham & PJ Scott – Co-founders, Velocity Commerce
- Education
- EMPLOYMENT TAX
- FAQS
- Financial Reporting
- Find Us
- Flexible ‘Finance Bench’
- Future Events
- Galahad Clark – Founder VivoBarefoot
- GLOBAL TALENT PROGRAMME
- GRADUATES
- HEALTHCARE INSIGHTS
- Helena Hills – Founder & CEO, TrueStart
- HIGH GROWTH LOW DOWN
- Homepage
- Homepage
- Hub CP
- HUB CP – Live Lounge
- HUB CP – Live Lounge Velocity Snippets
- HUB CP – Rob Law Trunki Snippets
- Hub CP 3
- HUB CP LEADERSHIP SERIES
- HUB CP LOUNGE – PACT COFFEE
- HUB CP LOUNGE – PAUL SCHAFFER, PLUM PRODUCTS
- Hub CP Podcast
- HUB CP Thank You
- Hugo Tilmouth – Founder & CEO, The Up.co
- Impact Beyond Business
- Impact Beyond Business New template
- In Their Words
- In Their Words Retail
- INDIRECT TAX
- Inheritance Tax
- Intellectual Property & Patent Box
- INTERNATIONAL TAX
- Investment Calculator UK
- James Hyde – Founder & CEO, James and James
- Jay Richards & Cat Agostinho – Co-Founders, Imagen
- Justin Harling – CEO, CAE Technology Services
- LANDLORD
- LEGAL STUFF
- Let’s Stop Calling It R&D V2 Gated
- Life at cooper parry
- Lounge Underwear Webcast
- MAKING TAX DIGITAL
- Management Information and Reporting
- MANAGING AGENTS
- Manufacturing Tax and Advisory
- Marketing Thank You
- MID MARKET – WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
- Mid-Market
- New Hub CP
- New Hub CP Live Lounge
- Newsletter Form
- Newsletter Thank You
- NFP Webcasts And More
- Not For Profit Audit
- Operational Systems & Technology
- Our People
- Meet the Team
- Meet the Team Retail
- Our People – Big Business
- Our People – Board
- Our People – Business Tax
- Our People – Capital Allowances
- Our People – Corporate Finance
- Our People – CP Innovation
- Our People – Facilities & Wellbeing
- Our People – Leadership
- Our People – Marketing
- Our People – New Business Relationships
- Our People – Not for Profit
- Our People – Outsourcing
- Our People – Partners
- Our People – Pensions
- Our People – Personal Tax
- Our People – Service Charge
- Our People – Tech & High Growth
- Our People – Tech & Platforms
- Our People – Transaction Services
- Our People – Transaction Tax
- Our People – VAT
- Our People – Wealth
- Our People Audit
- Our People Team
- Our Why And Values
- Outsourcing
- OVERSEAS EXPANSION
- Past Events
- Paul Richardson – Executive Chairman, Gymshark
- Paul Turton – CEO, Pact Coffee
- PENSIONS AUDIT
- Personal Tax
- Personal Tax Compliance
- PLACEMENTS
- Preference Centre
- PRIVACY POLICY
- Private Equity Advisory
- PROPERTY AND LANDLORDS
- R&D Capital Allowances
- R&D Newsletter Thank You
- R&D Tax Credits Questionnaire: Are you eligible?
- Raise investment or debt
- Raising Finance
- Read All About It
- Rebelution 2
- Rebelution 2 Top Tips – Cooper Parry Corporate Finance
- Rebelution 2 Top Tips – Cooper Parry IT
- Rebelution 2 Top Tips – Cooper Parry Wealth
- Rebelution 2 Top Tips – CP Futures
- Rebelution 2 Top Tips – VAT & Brexit
- Research & Development Tax Credits
- Research And Development Tax Credits
- RESIDENCE & DOMICILE ADVICE
- Retail
- Retail Advisory
- Retail Tax
- Rob Law MBE – Founder, Trunki
- Scale Up & High Growth
- SECURITY POLICY
- Service Charge
- Service Test
- SETTING UP BUSINESS IN THE UK
- SHARE INCENTIVES AND REWARD
- Share incentives: Annual Reporting
- SHAREHOLDER TAX ADVICE
- Shaun Doak – CEO, React Group Plc
- Small Business
- SNAPSHOT
- Succession Planning
- Supporting start ups
- SUSTAINABILITY
- Tax – What our clients say
- TAX COMPLIANCE SERVICES
- Tax Services
- TAX SETTLEMENTS AND INVESTIGATIONS
- Tech & High Growth
- Tech & High Growth – What our clients say
- TEN STAGES TO INVESTMENT
- TEN STAGES TO SALE
- Test2
- This Is Us
- Tom and Tina Warner – Co-Founders, Warner’s Distillery
- Transaction Deals
- Transaction Services
- Transaction Services – What Our Clients Say
- TRANSACTION TAX
- TRANSFER PRICING
- Trusts and Estates
- UK support for International groups
- VAT SERVICES
- Virtual Bookkeeping
- Virtual FD
- Wealth
- Wealth- What Our Clients Say
- Website How To Guide
- Welcome to the CP Family
- What our clients say
- WORK EXPERIENCE
- XCP Sign Up
- Your Development
- Your Say
- Your Say Contact Us
Let’s face it, we are likely to be heading into a recession pretty soon (we might already be deep in recession and only hindsight will tell us otherwise).
This will only mean one thing – salary hikes are going to be a challenging conversation over the next 6-12 months given companies will be looking at cutting back on spend.
To help with these tough chats, which expenses and benefits can you give tax free to keep your people motivated and offer extra support in the current economic climate?
Share options will be one angle to boost staff retention but below we detail a few expenses and benefits that you can give completely free of tax and NIC!
There are a few conditions (as usual with tax) attached to be able to provide them this way, but they can be an easy way to give more to your employees inexpensively.
Here goes:
FREE OR SUBSIDISED MEALS
Yes free (or even discounted) food and drinks. However, make sure it is at your office / premises and available to all staff. No one gets left out!
Did you know? This can apply to hotels, catering businesses etc – but here, there are more conditions!
TRIVIAL BENEFITS
Give a gift to your employees that costs no more than £50! A few hurdles to get over – the key ones being, it can’t be cash, can’t be a reward for doing their work and they can’t be contractually entitled to it. No limit to the number of gifts an employee can get (make sure they’re not connected).
FYI Special limits apply if the director who receives the benefit is in a close company.
EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS INTO A PENSION
An obvious one for sure. But still a favourite. Employer contributions are not taxable on employees if they are within certain limits.
Check this out Why not offer pension contributions through salary sacrifice too? It can generate annual cost savings for both the employee and the business. More information can be found in our Autumn 2022 Scoop! [Link]
OVERSEAS MEDICAL TREATMENT
Fingers crossed it’s never needed! But if it is, you can pay for the cost of necessary medical treatment abroad for your employees if they become ill or get injured while working for you abroad.
Good to know Medical insurance abroad is also non-taxable.
HEALTH SCREENING AND CHECK-UPS
Sticking with health – you can provide your employees with one health screening and one medical check-up a year
This doesn’t cover medical treatment, but you can cover treatment if they are absent from work for at least 28 days and the treatment is recommended to help them get back to work.
Did you know? You can provide eye tests and corrective glasses where employees use a computer for work (technical term alert – Visual Display Unit).
TRAINING (AND RE-TRAINING) COSTS
Work-related training paid or reimbursed by you. This covers a wide range of practical or theoretical skills and competencies the employee is likely to need in their job.
BETTER THAN A WATCH
Want to reward employees who have worked for you for at least 20 years? You can give them a gift to celebrate the occasion if they have:
- Worked for you for a least 20 years
- Haven’t had a long service award in the previous 10 years and
- The cost of the award doesn’t exceed £50 per year of service (20 years x £50) £1,000!
FYI Predictably, the award can’t be cash.
ELECTRICITY FOR COMPANY CARS AND VANS
Why not provide electricity, including the cost of a charging point at the employee’s home for a company car or van? The cost of providing the electricity is only free from tax if the employer pays for all the electricity directly.
Note Thinking about reimbursing the employee for electricity costs? HMRC expect it to be subject to tax and NIC on the full amount, leaving the employee to ask for tax relief directly from HMRC on business journeys.
Another option is for you to pay the advisory electricity rate on business mileage, which can be done free of tax and NIC.
MOBILES
Provide your employee with one company mobile phone. The contract must be in the business name
Ring the changes If you allow employees to make private calls on the device, it is still non-taxable!
CHRISTMAS AND OTHER PARTIES
You can put on an annual event for your employees such as a Christmas, summer party. Make sure it is open to all employees and costs no more than £150 per attendee (inc VAT).
Something to celebrate This can include a virtual annual event too, considering the pandemic.
SPORTS RELATED
If your employees are gym bunnies – you can provide them with sports facilities like an in-house gym, free of tax. However, before you sign them all up, one of the key conditions is that the gym can’t be open to the public! Colleagues only.
WELLBEING
Quite simply, you can provide welfare counselling to employees, if it’s open to all employees on similar terms.
Check this out It doesn’t extend to medical treatment, finance, legal or tax advice. It does extend to debt counselling though.
BIKES AND CYCLING SAFETY GEAR
You can lend or hire bicycles (and cycling safety equipment) to your employees. It must be offered to all employees; they must use the bike for mainly travelling to and from work.
Gearing up Family members using the bike too, doesn’t remove the favourable tax treatment.
And remember If the bike is given to employees to keep, it may trigger a tax charge, so best to discuss it before entering into any agreement with them to keep a bicycle.
DISCOUNTED GOODS
Who doesn’t like a bargain? You can sell goods to your employees such as clothes, products etc at a significant discount. However, make sure they pay at least cost price otherwise it becomes taxable.
Worth knowing Cost price may include much more costs that you initially thought.
WORKING FROM HOME
Are employees required to work from home? Instead of a pay rise, why not consider paying a working from home allowance completely tax free!
You can pay them up to £6 per week / £26 per month if it’s under agreed flexible working arrangements. No supporting evidence of cost needed!
Remember This is different from claiming tax relief from HMRC, which many employees did throughout the pandemic directly with HMRC.
TAX FREE AND NOT TAXING. INTERESTED IN HEARING MORE?
If you are interested in how to provide these to your employees and many more and wondering whether you meet all the conditions. Reach out to your usual CP contact or Nathan Woollery below.
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