COMPLIANCE
C ast your mind back to 2014, when the Office of Tax Simplification published two reports, in January and July, covering its review of employee benefits and expenses. It covered, among other matters, employer-provided living accommodation, and highlighted that, while the world of work had moved on, the tax rules for employer-provided living accommodation had not. Next, we had HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) call for evidence on employer-provided living accommodation in December 2015, which closed in February 2016. What’s perhaps surprising is that the relevant page on the HMRC website still states, ‘We are analysing your feedback’. So, you might be fooled into thinking nothing has changed in relation to living accommodation benefits since then, but you would be wrong. Since then, we have had: l the optional remuneration arrangement (OpRA) rules, which came into effect from 6 April 2017, with the transitional rules around living accommodation ending on 6 April 2021 l HMRC telling higher and further education institutions that it was no longer customary for them to provide living accommodation to employees from 6 April 2019 l the ‘representative occupier’ (RO) concession being removed from 6 April 2021 l HMRC clarifying that, for retirees provided with living accommodation by their former employers, the excluded benefit rules within the Employer Funded Retirement Benefit Scheme (EFRBS) Regulations (SI 2007/3537) only extend to the statutory exemptions under Section While the world of work had moved on, the tax rules for employer- 99 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act (ITEPA) 2003. They don’t cover living accommodation covered by the RO concession and haven’t done so since 2006. provided living accommodation had not
Living accommodation: changes to the tax treatment for employees
Susan Ball, employment tax partner, RSM UK and president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), and Lee Knight, employer solutions director, RSM UK consider whether the tax rules on employer-provided accommodation have changed
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | November 2022 | Issue 85 16
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