Firms not making use of ‘trivial allowances’ rules – One4allRewards

Less than one in ten employers is making use of the HMRC trivial benefits allowances rules to make tax-exempt awards to employees, including small regular bonus payments, according to a survey by One4allRewards. The HMRC made changes to rules in April 2016 to allow employers to benefit from the exemption, reducing national insurance contribution charges on such payments. Levels of awareness of the rules are also low; just over a fifth (22%) of UK businesses are aware of the tax relief available on trivial benefits and only 11% are planning to make use of them before the end of the 2017/18 tax year. Research for One4AllRewards suggests that a gift voucher or card reward would have the biggest impact on employees’ attitudes to work.

Alan Smith, UK managing director of the firm, said:

‘The changes to the workplace benefits rule have been introduced to help businesses similar to those we surveyed, who have limited budgets to reward their employees.’