The next Tory recession?

[Eric Arthur]

It's best that you quietly withdraw from the discussion while you have some dignity left

 

I1L2T3 just to say that I didn't mean to be offensive with that comment, it is just a bit of gentle leg pulling. It's been a very adult discussion on the whole.

[truman]

There's about 1 million workers who receive some kind of car/fuel benefit

 

 

I have a company car...I pay income tax on the perceived benefit. It's not a freebie..

[L00b]

I have a company car...I pay income tax on the perceived benefit. It's not a freebie..

Save for the small tax rebate on pension contributions (that applies to every contributor irrespective of sector), all of the 'perks' listed by I1L2T3 are taxed as BiK.

 

In this day and age, they're not so much 'perks' as quasi-mandatory job trinkets to attract a better calibre of applicants. (Personally-) expensive ones in some cases, particularly company cars.

 

And, in my experience, most frequently optional at the employee's choice, because employees are taxed on them as BiK and, in many cases, may actually have to pay for some or all of it (the employer simply acting as a go-between with e.g. BUPA, Westfield <etc> for securing a better 'group rate'...just like e.g. NHS employees get extremely generous discounts on anything under the sun left, right and centre).

 

I've let myself recently be told that even annual corporate do's run solely for the benefit of employees are taxed as BiK nowadays.

[truman]

Save for the small tax rebate on pension contributions (that applies to every contributor irrespective of sector), all of the 'perks' listed by I1L2T3 are taxed as BiK.

 

In this day and age, they're not so much 'perks' as quasi-mandatory job trinkets to attract a better calibre of applicants.

 

And, in my experience, most frequently optional at the employee's choice, because employees are taxed on them as BiK and, in many cases, may actually have to pay for some or all of it (the employer simply acting as a go-between with e.g. BUPA, Westfield <etc> for securing a better 'group rate'...just like e.g. NHS employees get extremely generous discounts on anything under the sun left, right and centre).

 

I've even let myself recently be told that annual corporate do's are taxed as BiK nowadays.

 

I1L2T3's posts were giving me the impression that things like cars were totally a perk...

[I1L2T3]

I1L2T3 just to say that I didn't mean to be offensive with that comment, it is just a bit of gentle leg pulling. It's been a very adult discussion on the whole.

 

No offence taken

 

---------- Post added 03-09-2015 at 19:42 ----------

 

I1L2T3's posts were giving me the impression that things like cars were totally a perk...

 

Why? I never said they were tax free perks. We haven't even got onto the tax angle yet....

 

As an example I have been stung myself for tax on various benefits over the years. Stuff like BUPA, motors, dental cover etc... but in every case there was a net benefit to me.

 

Now this is my beef with the IFS studies. Pensions are just one of the benefits that potentially comes with a job so why does the IFS cherry pick pensions when doing comparisons between public and private sector while ignoring all the other benefits?

 

Even worse, the IFS use a pensions calculation methodology which is questionable, based on estimates and a raft of assumptions. It's only one of many ways to estimate pension contributions and isn't applicable to certain types of public pension provision.

 

I guess my point here is it's easy to latch onto a headline and accept a story as gospel without questioning it. We've seen a lot of this with public/private sector pay comparisions which are hard enough to do anyway even before trying to lump in employment benefits.

[Eric Arthur]

No offence taken

 

You're a gent.