How to make employing people less taxing

Posted on 17th February 2017 by Alexis Outram -  What's trending?


Image to represent How to make employing people less taxing

The starting point - a PAYE Check

Initially it is recommended that you have a review of your PAYE practices and treatment of benefits in kind. This exercise can help to identify anomalies and look to provide you with a clean bill of health. Such an approach can certainly ensure, should HMRC have any enquiry, you are better placed to deal with it.

Dispensations and Exemptions

You don’t have to report some routine expenses to HMRC if they are covered by an exemption. Exemptions have replaced dispensations. If you have had a dispensation this no longer applies but the expenses covered by it should now be covered by exemptions.

Examples of items covered include business travel, phone bills, business entertainment and uniform. To qualify you must either be paying a flat rate to your employee as part of their earnings or paying back actual costs. You don’t need to apply for an exemption if you are paying HMRC’s benchmark rates, but will need to if you want to pay bespoke rates.

It is important to have a system in place to check payments made at benchmark rates. Your employees aren’t allowed to check their own expenses, so you need someone to within your company to make sure they are legitimate and employees should keep proof of their expenses.

How about a PAYE Settlement Agreement?

A PAYE Settlement Agreement is a voluntary agreement between you and HMRC in which you agree to meet the tax on the provision of certain expenses and benefits in kind on behalf of your employees. They are extremely useful for cases where you have rewarded an employee but don’t want them to have to suffer tax or national insurance on the value.

Self employed or employed?

In some cases it can be a costly confusion as to whether someone is self employed or actually deemed to be employed. This is a favourite topic for HMRC as they can reap significant amounts of tax and national insurance from any employer who has got it wrong. It is essential that the correct contracts are in place for such individuals and that these are reviewed regularly.

Salary sacrifice for childcare savings and pension contributions

It is possible to save tax and national insurance by asking an employer to pay fees directly to your childcare provider in return for a reduced salary. We can review your salary and benefit packages for other opportunities for tax efficiency. Similarly it is not unusual for pension contributions to be structured in such a way that, although effective for tax purposes, are not minimising the national insurance liability.

Employee share ownership schemes

The government is keen to promote share ownership by employees. A number of schemes are available which in broad terms are aimed at helping businesses to retain key staff, improve employee motivation and productivity as well as to reduce the tax.

Streets dedicated team of advisers are here to help you

At Streets our dedicated team of employment/PAYE tax advisers provide full and comprehensive tax advice in respect of employing people. The team is led by an ex HMRC compliance officer who knows how HMRC work and operate and understands what you need to do to limit your exposure to enquiries and to identify key saving areas.

In almost every business employment costs, and in particular PAYE and National Insurance, will represent one of the highest costs of the business. Taking time out with a PAYE Tax adviser, whether you employ a handful of people or a large workforce, could help to safeguard the impact of an HMRC enquiry, look to reduce the administrative burden of PAYE and possibly enhance the reward for your staff both now and in the future. 

For further information on how to save tax on employing people, please email tax@streetsweb.co.uk 


No Advice

The content produced and presented by Streets is for general guidance and informational purposes only. It should not be construed as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice. Furthermore, it should not be considered a recommendation or an offer to sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy any securities or other form of financial asset. The information provided by Streets is of a general nature and is not specific for any individual or entity. Appropriate and tailored advice or independent research should be obtained before making any such decisions. Streets does not accept any liability for any loss or damage which is incurred from you acting or not acting as a result of obtaining Streets' visual or audible content.

Information

The content used by Streets has been obtained from or is based on sources that we believe to be accurate and reliable. Although reasonable care has been taken in gathering the necessary information, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information we publish and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions in material. You should always seek specific advice prior to making any investment, legal or tax decisions.


Expert insight and news straight
to your inbox

Related Articles


How do you avoid financial forecasting that ends up with rain instead of sunshine?

Financial forecasting can often feel like the weather forecast, financial predictions not always being as rosy as planned, or in many cases, as hoped - a bit like the weather whilst sunshine is predicted rain all too often can be the outcome.  Whilst many businesses will look to ...


Working Capital Cycle

The longer the working capital cycle, the more time it takes for your business to get a robust cash flow. It’s good practice for businesses to manage their cycle by looking at each step where possible. This could be by selling stock or product quicker, collecting monies owed ...


Payrolling of benefits in kind to become mandatory

HMRC has announced that from April 2026 the reporting and paying of Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) arising on benefits in kind provided to employees, must be collected through the employers payroll. What is the current position? Currently, taxable benefits and expenses must be reported to ...


You might also be interested in...