COMPLIANCE
Employee assistance programmes or staff welfare counselling – have you got the tax treatment right?
Susan Ball, tax partner, and Lee Knight, director, the People Advisory Services at RSM UK, explain the tax implications of providing staff welfare counselling for employers
W ith mental health week having taken place in May 2023, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and staff welfare being important for both employees and employers, organisations are increasingly using welfare counselling (often via an employee assistance programme or ‘EAP’) to support their workforce. For employment tax purposes, care needs to be taken to ensure the employment tax position and tax reporting obligations, such as the exemption criteria and the potential requirement to complete forms P11D, are properly considered. Although by no means new, we’ve seen
increasing changes to what’s on offer. But the exemption hasn’t changed, running the risk that an employer’s policy suddenly changes from being an exempt benefit, to being a taxable benefit, also liable to National Insurance contributions (NICs). Is this an exempt benefit in kind for employment tax purposes? Potentially it can be, but it’s certainly not the case that all types of welfare counselling are exempt from tax. The legislation itself doesn’t define the types of welfare counselling which are exempt (although it does specifically exclude certain types of counselling
services from the exemption – see below). Employers, therefore, have to rely on HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) guidance in its Employment Income Manual (see EIM21845, here: http:// ow.ly/rsxx50OtqG8), which lists the types of issues HMRC expects the exemption to cover. This includes welfare counselling on: l stress l problems at work l debt problems l alcohol and drug dependency l career concerns l bereavement l equal opportunities l ill health
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | June 2023 | Issue 91 30
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