Medical Costs

[Miguelito]

Hi all

Wondering if I could get your thoughts on this one.

I recently separated my shoulder, tearing the ligaments around the ac joint and displacing my collarbone by around 3cm, all in all a pretty painful experience which even after a month isn't settling down and is making work difficult and life pretty tiring in general at the moment.

NHS timescales for getting this looked at are slooow, so I'm considering going private. Without any private medical insurance, I was looking at paying this directly myself however another contractor I spoke to suggested paying for the medical treatment from my limited company.

From reading the HMRC guidance it would seem that providing I'm able to prove the following, then this is something which I could pay from the limited company:

been assessed by a health care professional as unfit for work (or will be unfit for work) because of injury or ill health for at least 28 consecutive days

Any thoughts on this? Is this something at the discretion of the company or something which I would have to provide to HMRC should I be challenged on this.

TIA

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

There's a limit of £500 and if HMRC reviewed your expenses (say in a PAYE enquiry) then I'd expect this to come under close scrutiny.

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-bene...t/whats-exempt

There's a second criterion which is you must have also been absent from work for 28 days. This, IMO, becomes harder to prove for a typical contractor business.

If you are mid contract and need to take a month off due to illness, perhaps you've sent a sub in for 28 days, then you might be able to convince HMIT with the appropriate documentation.

If you're not in a contract, or the client just bins you, then it gets harder to demonstrate.

£500 limit means you're potential tax saving is £100 if you're a basic rate payer, £200 if you're a higher rate payer. A small saving but not exactly a fortune either.

[Kenny@MyAccountantFriend]

If you were to pay for the op via the company I would expect it to be classed as a benefit in kind at present based on the information provided.
In which case both you personally and the company would be liable to tax on the benefit recieved/provided to you.

[BrilloPad]

It will not be wholly and solely for business use.

Hence you will pay the full tax on it. Plus your company will come under minute scrutiny.

Don't go there.