Following a recent case in the First Tier Tribunal, a potential National Insurance Contribution (“NIC”) refund could be due to you as an employer and to your employees if you:

• pay a business mileage payment of less than 40p per mile

• pay a lump car sum allowance to your employees for the use of their own private vehicles

• have retained records to verify the business mileage

• there is no direct link between the lump sum car allowance and salary

Refunds can extend back six complete tax years and run into thousands of £’s so what do you need to do now?

To quote a Russian meerkat – it’s simples: contact us today on 0800 917 9176 to register your interest – no protective claims are necessary at this stage – it’s just a ruse by some organisations to make you panic but don’t be fooled, contact the employment tax expert today

Contact us on 0800 917 9176

Why will this government not admit that the majority of its “green” measures are just effectively a secret additional tax – take cars for example we are getting taxed to death on the price of fuel, vehicle excise duty, company car benefits etc but we are too polite as a nation when are we going to sit up and take notice that we are being conned left right and centre. If you think that’s a bit harsh then think about it

• what is the cost of oil – has the price risen or dropped – what about the price of fuel
• Road fund tax – what is this being spent on because it certainly isn’t roads and we now have a “special” allocation in the Budget for road repairs – where is this money coming from?
• public transport – trains are like meat wagons but remember you’re not paying for a seat just the privilege of auditioning as a sardine
• allowances mentioned in the Budget are currently a sham – a reduction by half of the percentage used to calculate the taxable car benefit if the car has a CO2 emission level of between 0 -75g/km sounds good but the FACT is there aren’t ANY cars in this country with emissions this low, the lowest is 88g/km – so what an excellent “giveaway”
• Electric cars – where is the infra structure to support them

So this employment tax expert says forget all the spin that’s out there and look at what you can do for you and your employees, because you can:

• Save tax and NIC
• Be enviromentally friendly; and
• Keep both your employees and the Board Room happy

Employee car ownership schemes and car salary sacrifice schemes are a real winner if constructed correctly – what have you got to lose, give us a call on 0800 917 9176 and see how we can shape the enviromental future of your car scheme as well as saving you money

So we have the pre budget report today when we theoretically find out the true scale of the national debt and what the government propose to do about it. However, as always seems to be the practice these days, it’s not just a question of looking into a crystal ball but also doing a bit of brain trainer to recall exactly what was mentioned previously that will also be brought in now – following this so far?

In yester year we used to just have a Budget and that was relatively straight forward but now we have the PBR which allows whoever is in power to map out their budgetary vision for the next x number of years. However, this time round this has been blown out of the water somewhat by the fact that we are due an election in June 2010 and David Cameron has come out and said he will have another Budget within 50 days of being in office – still following?

So pin back your ears today as there may be more to this one than meets the eye. For all you practitioners out there we know the devil is in the detail, pages and pages of it in fact to wade through in order to get past the smoke and mirrors but the bottom line is a really interesting point – pre election budget v. the prudent protector of our economy (where we are all in this together and we all have to make sacrifices – yeah right, anyone forgoing their £m plus bonus – hardly think so,  let’s completely muller SME’s, working/middle class etc as usual) and this employment tax expert for one gets well hacked off with the smoke screen of “green” issues – saving the planet or an excuse for increased taxes – mmmm that’s a difficult one

Carry on watching for updates ….

I like many people had hoped that our taxation system would be made simpler but no it seems like one more administrative burden after another. An example for you with something as seemingly innocuous as a change in the Advisory Fuel Rates. These are rates published by HMRC for use by employers who either reimburse the cost of business fuel to their company car drivers or where both business and private fuel is initially paid for by the employer, usually when a fuel card is used, the employee to avoid a company car fuel scale charge reimburses their employer the cost of private fuel.

The latter option is always the most dangerous because any amount of private fuel not reimbursed leads to a fuel scale charge, which is a hefty benefit in kind that HMRC will pursue the EMPLOYER for, together with Class 1A NIC – imagine that cost if you’ve been getting it wrong for a few years!

So most employers pay AFR’s which used to be reasonably straightforward before we had the massive increases in the cost of petrol and diesel. Now employers face the constant “discussions” with their employees over what rate they should receive, as prices fluctuate. HMRC like the teflon kid (non stick if you’re feeling a bit slow this morning) simply point to the fact that they are only “Advisory” rates and that employers can pay higher rates if they can prove that they are justified – more admin v disgruntled employees

So what has now happened – well previously HMRC would give a month’s notice of a change in the rates, so allowing employers sufficient time to change their systems. Not now this one month’s grace has been removed and if you didn’t pick it up the new rates were announced on Friday, so for most employers that would have actually meant this morning, 30 November with the rate change from 1 December ie tomorrow – madness!

It’s like a game where the rules keep changing and if you get it wrong there’s penalties etc accumulating.

If the rates go up and you don’t spot the changes then you may be paying less than you can – I’m sure those employees will be telling you and you will need to make (if you want) a correction – more admin! but the contra side of this is that if employees have to reimburse you then you will have problems because they won’t be reimbursing enough and oh what joy from HMRC – private fuel scale charge

What happens if you only pay business mileage and the rates go down and you don’t spot them – feel the pain

This is just another trap that unsuspecting employers can and will fall into and wait for your next employer compliance review, tax investigation – this employment tax expert bets that this is an area where there will be a heightened level of interest – so be warned!

It’s good to see that we have a focused government, sure of what they are doing – are you kidding, in an effort to enter Strictly Come Dancing himself  Gordy looks like he is heading for yet another U turn and this can’t be blamed on poor handwriting!

By all accounts it looks like the well publicised removal of tax relief on childcare voucher schemes may not be culled quite as spectacularly as first announced. Instead it looks like only higher rate tax payers will lose out, leaving two thirds of people still eligible.

With something as important as this you would have thought some very clear thinking would have been done to avoid such a monumental cock up in the first place but now that they have “rethought” you would expect them to come clean on the subject but with yet another patronising finger to the tax paying public we are being told to see what santa Darling brings in his pre budget report in December – so watch this space as Santa Darling and his little nodding elves hold court on 9 December – bet there won’t be any extra duty on whisky!

Yes that’s right – in this era of doom and gloom both employers and employees can save a lot of money and not be tied to ever increasing car benefit and car fuel benefit charges simply by looking at how they provide cars to their employees. Don’t get confused with ever increasing taxation on these benefits, in the name of “going green/saving the planet, enviromentally friendly” it’s all crap – we’ve a national debt to feed and it’s got a monstrous appetite – remember this when it comes to the Pre Budget report.

So remove yourselves from this farce, it’s a fantastic idea, tailored specifically to your company and with HMRC approval, employees love it and even better you as the employer keep control and meet your duty of care and corporate manslaughter responsibilities.

Not come across it before? Thought about it some years ago but were a bit afraid of it – well those employers that weren’t have saved £millions – now don’t tell me that you wouldn’t be interested in that. So if you have a company car fleet or are even running a cash for car scheme and want to join the band of smiling employers and employees and find out more about employee car ownership schemes then call us on 0800 917 9176

So here we go, the start of how do we claw back the national debt, well what a way to start – removing tax relief from childcare voucher schemes – what message is that sending everyone!

and now we have the “if it’s not bolted down, let’s sell it approach” bearing in mind raising the retirement age and freezing civil service pay is only going to raise £4billion out of a total disputed debt of between £100b to £140billion – now call me slightly old fashioned but why the hell are we nit picking – where the hell are we going to get hold of £100 billion – well one place we’re not is from MP’s expenses. So we’ve had the compliance review and they are being made to pay back public money that they shouldn’t have had – or are they? Not these leaches – oh no let’s be angry because perish the thought we are just being picked on. What does it tell you when the unelected prime minister is paying back over £12,000 – that’s someone’s annual salary!

So just watch this space as more and more things are taxed, put into foreign ownership (don’t even talk about security issues attached to these) – where will the remaining debt payoff come from………………? well there’s an election next year – oh yes an election involving the self centred parasites mmmmmmmmm!!!

Pensions are just one item that can be subject to a salary sacrifice arrangement but it can yield SIGNIFICANT savings for both the employer AND the employee. When times are difficult these sort of arrangements can benefit everyone and the savings that are made can be split any number of ways and part can even be used to offset the cost of setting up the arrangements.

These type of schemes HAVE to be set up correctly from both a tax and NIC perspective, as well as taking into account the impact on benefit entitlement but by using an employment tax expert you are on your way to potentially making everyone happy and you can’t say that about many things in this day and age. So what are you waiting for – the larger number of people in your pension scheme the bigger the saving so give us a call today on 0800 917 9176 – what have you got to lose?

If you either have company cars or a car allowance scheme have you considered what savings you could make by moving to an employee car ownership scheme?

Could your business do with making excellent savings as well as motivating your staff in difficult times then this is what you should be looking at. For all of you out there with car/cash allowance schemes are you meeting your duty of care and corporate manslaughter responsibilities as you have what is termed a grey fleet? ECOS meets all these requirements as it is a structured scheme – so what have you got to lose – have a chat, with the employment tax expert and see what it can do for your business