BIK - Any benefits vs personal expenditure?

[northernladuk]

OP is not trying to escape a BIK charge, read the OP - you and nluk love answering the question you want to answer rather than the question that's actually asked

He's getting the quality of response that he's paying for to be fair.

But if there were any benefits we'd generally all know and it would be standard practice. Anything hooky, grey or super clever then he needs to be speaking to a professional.

[fiisch]

Thanks all - that's good to know, I feared as much! As I say, I'd been brainstorming ideas as I fear having to dip into higher dividend tax which will hurt my warchest/not be especially efficient, but rising costs might leave me no option.

This. It's not hard. There is a very simple term that Mal mentions that covers 99% of it. For example ' I attend with my family a gym'. Wholly and exclusive? No. Done.
Life insurance is the same. It's you personally, not the job. Just apply to basic rules first and you'll have your answers..

I understood 'wholly and exclusive' to refer to goods - e.g.: a phone, laptop etc. I wondered with benefits like gym membership that sometimes employers offered this as a perk, and wondered whether there was a route to doing something similar.... evidently not.

Why not? It's what you pay them for and you get proper advice. You might actually learn something. We are giving you a fish here, a bit of time with your accountant and you might learn how to fish. You are legally responsible for your tax affairs so some basic understand would go a long way.

I'd question why your accountant isn't doing a quarterly review and bringing these proactively to you if you've already been paying life insurance for a period though.

My accountant does do quarterly reviews, but of the business accounts. They don't trawl through my personal expenditure and say "hey Fiisch, why you paying for this out of your personal accounts ya wally?". They're aware of the life insurance and have mentioned I will pay BIK on this, but I wasn't clear on whether there'd be a benefit to this (i.e.: if BIK would be at a lower rate vs dividend tax).

I do have more than a basic understanding - there are shades of grey and sometimes it's useful to engage the wisdom on CUK to help with understanding.

Case in point - question to my accountant: "if I employ my wife, is there a limit to how much I can pay into her SIPP?" - "£60k"

CUK: "Don't take the Michael. Commensurate SIPP payment for work they are doing."

Two very different answers, and as a risk adverse person if I was to employ my wife in future I'd prefer to go with the latter. Technically and by the letter of the law, I'm sure my accountant isn't wrong, but asking CUK gave me a fuller understanding.

[WTFH]

If you're trying to reduce outgoings (not just "save tax"), cancel the gym membership and rehome a dog.

[ladymuck]

Regarding the insurance side of things, I remember when I was getting advice from my IFA about this and pensions, etc, he said I should pay the premium personally but his fee for giving the advice was an allowable expense. He even had a chat with my accountant about it who was happy to put it through.

I took out an income replacement policy because that's the right thing for me - I don't need money when I'm dead.

A lot of companies do offer perks like insurances, gym membership, etc etc but they are all subject to BIK. I remember when I used to work in an accounts dept, working out the values that needed to go onto the P11Ds. Tedious work that was.