Current annual limit ‘out-of-date’
The Government should relax the rules on Christmas parties (and similar events) and increase the amount which can be treated as ‘tax free’ each year from £150 per employee to £300 per employee.
There are a few factors which help justify this change. Not only has the existing £150 annual limit, which is a VAT inclusive limit, been in place since 2003 and is therefore massively out-of-date but changing this limit would also provide businesses generally and the hospitality sector specifically with some much-needed support, as they look to recover from the Covid pandemic.
A genuine thank you to employees
Increasing the limit to £300 per employee per year, would help reduce the overall costs faced by employers and encourage employers to provide employees with a genuine ‘thank you’ for all their efforts. Specifically, a £300 per employee limit would mean that in most reasonable cases, there is no need for employers to report any taxable benefit-in-kind charge via a PAYE Settlement Agreement (PSA).
Where employers need to cover the tax cost of a Christmas party via a PSA they can face an effective tax liability (including taxes and NICs) of up to 107% of the core value of the Christmas party.
This can mean that the effective, cumulative cost to the employer of providing a Christmas party can easily in some cases be up to 200% of its headline, initial per head cost.
Avoiding common mistakes
Employees need to ensure that they avoid making some common mistakes when it comes to budgeting for their Christmas party. For example, the £150 value mentioned above is not an ‘allowance’. Hence, if the per head cost of the event is above £150, the full value of the event becomes a taxable benefit – and not just the excess amount over the £150 threshold.
The £150 threshold is an annual limit and not something which applies purely on a per event basis. If a company provides a summer ball for staff and a Christmas party, for example, the employer needs to look at both events and assess whether the £150 threshold has been exceeded.
In this situation, if the summer ball cost £100 per head and the Christmas party £135 per head, firms would, if the event was genuinely open to all staff, be able to treat the Christmas party costs as ‘tax exempt’ as it is under the £150 threshold. However, the costs of the summer ball would represent a taxable benefit and need to be recorded via a firm’s PSA with the HM Revenue & Customs. In contrast, if both events exceeded the £150 threshold say, £160 for the summer ball and £200 for the Christmas party, the employer would need to report the total combined sum for each employee as a benefit on the PSA.
It can me a minefield. The tax-free amount should be increased, and the rules could be simplified.
Would you like to know more?
If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article, please contact your usual Blick Rothenberg contact or Robert Salter, using the details on this page.
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