Tag: Gifts

What benefits are allowed to be given tax free?

Trivial Benefits

You don’t have to pay tax on a benefit for your employee if all of the following apply:

1. it cost you £50 or less to provide
2. it isn’t cash or a cash voucher
3. it isn’t a reward for their work or performance
4. it isn’t in the terms of their contract

This is known as a ‘trivial benefit’. You don’t need to pay tax or National Insurance or let HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) know.

You have to pay tax on any benefits that don’t meet all these criteria.

Directors of ‘close’ companies

You can’t receive trivial benefits worth more than £300 in a tax year if you’re the director of a ‘close’ company.
A close company is a limited company that’s run by 5 or fewer shareholders.

Problem areas and points to note

  1. There is no limit on how many trivial benefits you give to employees
  2. Store Gift Cards that can’t be exchanged for cash are acceptable
  3. Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, New Year, and basically any special occasion not work related are great for trivial benefits
  4. Avoid it be part of a continuation of the same benefit as described below

Employer D gives an employee a gift card, which costs the employer £10 to provide. The employer tops up the employee’s gift card on 7 further occasions, at a cost of £10 for each occasion. Although the benefit to the employee is topped up on separate occasions there is a single benefit of the provision of a gift card. The total cost to the employer for providing the benefit over the period of employment is £80 and therefore this benefit is not exempt as a trivial benefit. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim21865

Annual Parties and Functions

Annual parties at Christmas or alternative functions of a similar nature, such as an annual dinner dance, which are open to staff generally and which cost no more than £150 per head to provide. Where there’s more than one annual function and their total cost per head exceeds £150, only the functions that total £150 or less will not be taxed. Please note that the figure of £150 quoted is not an annual allowance and the criteria set out at Section 264 ITEPA 2003 must be satisfied to meet the exemption. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/785476/480_2019_Expenses_benefits.pdf.pdf

Gifts from Third Parties

Certain gifts received by an employee if all the following conditions are satisfied, the:

• gift consists of goods or a voucher or token only capable of being used to obtain goods

• person making the gift is not the employer or a person connected with the employer

• gift is not made either in recognition of the performance of particular services in the course of the employment or in anticipation of particular services which are to be performed

• gift has not been directly or indirectly procured by the employer or by a person connected with the employer

• gift cost the donor £250 or less

• total cost of all gifts made by the same donor to the employee, or to members of the employee’s family or household, during the Income Tax year is £250 or less

Click to access 480_2019_Expenses_benefits.pdf.pdf

 

steve@bicknells.net

 

A few quick tips on how to save IHT

Signing Last Will and Testament

There are lots of things you can do to save inheritance tax.

Pensions

IHT only applies if the pension company has to pay the value of your scheme to your estate, in which case it becomes like any other asset, but generally the pension pot is held in a discretionary trust, which means it isn’t taxed on death.

You can now nominate anyone not just dependents to be the beneficiary.

How a Family Pension Scheme will save you Tax

Potentially Exempt Transfers and Lifetime Gifts

The original owner must live for 7 years after giving the gift. Any gifts made less than 7 years before death count towards the Inheritance Tax threshold (£325,000). They count towards the threshold before the rest of the estate.

If the donor gave away more than £325,000 of gifts in their final 7 years, tax is due on everything over that threshold.

Gifts made 3 to 7 years before the death

The rate of tax is reduced for gifts over the threshold made between 3 and 7 years before the person died. This is known as ‘taper relief’.

Annual Exemptions

The estate doesn’t pay Inheritance Tax on up to £3,000 worth of gifts given away by the deceased in each tax year (6 April to 5 April). This is called the ‘annual exemption’.

Leftover annual exemption can be carried over from one tax year to the next, but the maximum exemption is £6,000.

Certain gifts don’t count towards the annual exemption and no Inheritance Tax is due on them, eg gifts worth up to £250 and wedding gifts.

Wedding gifts

There’s no Inheritance Tax on a wedding or civil partnership gift worth up to:

  • £5,000 given to a child
  • £2,500 given to a grandchild or great-grandchild
  • £1,000 given to anyone else

The gift must be given on or shortly before the date of the wedding or civil partnership ceremony.

Gifts up to £250

There’s no Inheritance Tax on individual gifts worth up to £250. You can give as many people as you like up to £250 each in any one tax year.

You can’t give someone another £250 if you’ve given them a gift using a different exemption, eg the £3,000 annual exemption.

If you give someone more than £250 in a tax year, the whole amount counts – the first £250 is not exempt.

steve@bicknells.net

How to have a tax free Christmas

the unlike trio 01/Devil, Angel and Santa celebrating Xmas

Christmas Parties

·         HMRC have an Exemption (not an allowance) of £150.

  • available to employees generally or
  • available to employees generally at one location, where the employer has more than one location.

·         If the employer provides two or more annual parties or functions, no charge arises in respect of the party, or parties, for which cost(s) per head do not exceed £150 in aggregate.

The figure of £150 is not an allowance. For functions that are outside the scope of the exemption (see example at EIM21691) directors and employees, except those in an excluded employment, are chargeable on the full cost per head, not just the excess over £150, in respect of:

  • themselves and
  • any members of their family and household who attend as guests.

The cost of the function includes VAT and the cost of transport and/or overnight accommodation if these are provided to enable employees to attend. Divide the total cost of each function by the total number of people (including non-employees) who attend in order to arrive at the cost per head.

Christmas Gifts from suppliers to employees

Certain gifts from third parties are tax free if all these conditions are satisfied:

• the gift consists of goods or a voucher or token only capable of being used to obtain goods, and

• the person making the gift is not your employer or a person connected with your employer, and

• the gift is not made either in recognition of the performance of particular services in the course of your employment or in anticipation of particular

services which are to be performed, and

• the gift has not been directly or indirectly procured by your employer or by a person connected with your employer, and

• the gift cost the donor £250 or less, and

• the total cost of all gifts made by the same donor to you, or to members of your family or household, during the tax year is £250 or less.

Some other gifts are not taxable. If you earn at a rate of less than £8,500 a year and you are not a director, a gift to mark a personal occasion, such as

a wedding present, which is not a reward of your employment, is not taxable. If you earn at a rate of £8,500 a year or more, or you are a director,

any gift from your employer is taxable unless your employer is an individual and makes the gift in the course of family, domestic or personal relationships.

Seasonal gifts from Employer to Employee

An employer may provide employees with a seasonal gift, such as a turkey, an ordinary bottle of wine or a box of chocolates at Christmas. All of these gifts can be treated as trivial benefits. . For an employer with a large number of employees the total cost of providing a gift to each employee may be considerable, but where the gift to each employee is a trivial benefit, this principle applies regardless of the total cost to the employer and the number of employees concerned. If a benefit is trivial it should not be included in a PSA (EIM21861).

If the gift extends beyond one of the items mentioned above, for example from a bottle or two to a case of wine, or from a turkey to a Christmas hamper, you will need to consider the contents and cost before being able to determine whether the benefit is trivial.

PAYE Settlement Agreement (PSA)

For practical purposes it may be that small cash and money’s worth benefits can be included in a PSA.

PAYE Settlement Agreements (PSA’s) are requested by Employers and subject to agreement with HMRC. Under this agreement the employer will be responsible for accounting for any tax and national insurance liabilities arising. Any items covered by a PSA will not need to be shown on forms P35 and P11D at the end of the tax year.

steve@bicknells.net