tel: 0845 3082288
e: enquiries@payrollsolutions.org.uk
e: enquiries@payrollsolutions.org.uk
We’ll sort out the nitty gritty of your employees salary sacrifice scheme and keep you up to date with any changes
Salary sacrifices, which are to be approved by HMRC are things that employees want or need, and offer a way of reducing their tax and national insurance contributions. A salary sacrifice arrangement is an agreement between an employer and an employee to change the terms of the employment contract to reduce the employee’s entitlement to cash pay. Usually this sacrifice of cash entitlement is in return for some form of non-cash benefit.
Sacrifice part of the salary into a company pension scheme
Gain a fitter, healthier workforce and reduce your carbon footprint by offering an attractive range of bikes and accessories to commute on HMRC authorisation must be obtained before commencing schemes
It’s important to weigh up the potential financial benefits against other effects that salary sacrifice can have. For example, salary sacrifice in return for non-cash benefit increases the non-cash benefits you’re required to provide to an employee if they take statutory maternity, ordinary paternity, additional paternity or adoption leave. It can also reduce an employee’s entitlement to statutory payments for sickness, maternity, ordinary and additional paternity or adoption. For more details you can speak to one of our team.
Salary sacrifice doesn’t have a set effect on the tax and NICs that are payable on an employee’s remuneration. The impact will differ in each case depending on the specific package of pay and non-cash benefits that make up the salary sacrifice arrangement. Your key obligation is to make sure that you pay and deduct the right amount of tax and NICs for the mix of cash and benefits that you provide to your employee:
Some non-cash benefits qualify for an exemption from tax and/or may be disregarded before calculating NICs. If this is the case for a benefit you’re providing to an employee as part of a salary sacrifice arrangement, bear in mind that you must satisfy any conditions that apply to the exemption.
For example, if an exemption requires that a benefit be made available to all of your employees then this condition must be fully satisfied, whether or not all employees have a salary sacrifice arrangement with you.
You can check the tax and NICs rules and conditions for each type of benefit using HMRC’s expenses and benefits A to Z.
Remember that the reporting requirements for many non-cash benefits are different from those for cash earnings. In general, benefits must be reported to HMRC at the end of the tax year using forms P11D or P9D. Again, use HMRC’s A to Z to find the specific reporting rules that apply to individual benefits.
Once a salary sacrifice arrangement is in place, you can ask the HMRC Clearances Team to confirm its tax and NICs implications. Please note that HMRC won’t comment on a proposed salary sacrifice arrangement before it has been put in place. HMRC’s contact details are:
HMRC Clearances Team,
Alexander House,
21 Victoria Avenue,
Southend-on-Sea,
Essex, SS99 1BD.
In general, if you wish to allow your employee to ‘opt in’ and ‘opt out’ of a salary sacrifice arrangement, you’ll have to alter their contract with each change. This is because the employee’s contract must spell out clearly what their cash and non-cash entitlements are at any given time.
If a salary sacrifice arrangement allows an employee to swap between cash earnings and a non-cash benefit whenever they like, then they haven’t really sacrificed their entitlement to the cash earnings, as is required. In those circumstances, any expected tax and NICs advantages under the salary sacrifice arrangement will not apply.
If an employee’s financial circumstances change unexpectedly, HMRC accepts that it may be necessary to change the terms of a salary sacrifice arrangement where a ‘lifestyle change’ significantly alters an employee’s financial circumstances. Examples include marriage and divorce, or an employee’s spouse or partner becoming redundant or pregnant. Salary sacrifice arrangements can allow opting in or out in the event of lifestyle changes like these.
A salary sacrifice arrangement cannot reduce an employee’s cash earnings below the national minimum wage.
Salary sacrifice affects Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP),Ordinary Statutory Paternity Pay (OSPP), Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (ASPP) and Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) in two ways:
To be entitled to receive SSP, SMP, OSPP, ASPP or SAP an employee’s average weekly earnings must be at or above the Lower Earnings Level (LEL) that applies at the relevant week (Qualifying or Matching Week), which is £123 per week for the 2024-25 tax year.
If a salary sacrifice arrangement reduces an employee’s average weekly earnings below the LEL, then you won’t be required to make any statutory payments to them. There’s more information on calculating average weekly earning when a salary sacrifice is in place in the section ‘Calculating statutory payments’ below.
If your employee is entitled to statutory payments then you may need to use the average weekly earnings to work out the amount to pay.
To calculate their average weekly earnings use the remuneration package that applies under the salary sacrifice arrangement, with its reduced cash element, not the package that applied previously for example:
As described above, payments of SMP, OSPP, ASPP, SAP or SSP must be calculated on the basis of what an employee actually earns – you can’t agree between you to use a higher earnings level such as one that applied before a salary sacrifice arrangement was put in place. However, you can make non-statutory ‘top-up’ payments to the employee if you wish to compensate for any reduction in their statutory pay entitlement.
When an employee is on statutory maternity, ordinary paternity, additional paternity or adoption leave, all of the terms and conditions of their employment contract continue to apply, other than those relating to wages or salary.
This applies to all non-cash benefits in the contract, including any that form part of a salary sacrifice arrangement. You must continue to provide these benefits in the same way as if the employee was still at work.
For example, if you agree a salary sacrifice arrangement that involves an employee losing £50 per week of their salary in return for £50 of vouchers, you will have to continue to provide those vouchers throughout any statutory maternity, paternity or adoption leave that the employee takes.
You cannot reduce the amount of any statutory payments due to the employee to recover the cost of providing any non-cash benefits to them while they are on maternity, ordinary paternity, additional paternity or adoption leave.
Please note that these provisions apply to childcare vouchers in exactly the same way as to any other non-cash benefits.