The continuing nonsense of "Take Home Pay"

[malvolio]

Making a profit on expenses by billing a client for more money than the expense cost is not tax evasion - I think you need to re-word your post

No I don't.

We're not talking about cost recovery but about personal taxation on expenses claimed. You can only have the tax relief on what you have actually spent personally. Artificially inflating that amount - not what you have billed, which is a pure B2B exchange - is tax evasion.

[TonyF]

Childcare :'(

You can claim £290 a week in childcare vouchers from your employer? I thought the limit was much lower than that, but well worth knowing.

[l35kee]

You can claim £290 a week in childcare vouchers from your employer? I thought the limit was much lower than that, but well worth knowing.

Claim more actually/sadly. Its something like £243 a month per employee.

[TonyF]

Claim more actually/sadly. Its something like £243 a month per employee.

So that's £60 a week. Still someway off this mythical £300 a week in expenses that counts a income...

[l35kee]

So that's £60 a week. Still someway off this mythical £300 a week in expenses that counts a income...

Oh right lol, can't account for that but my phone, life insurance, income protection, accountant, milage all adds up. About £200 a week.

[SueEllen]

It disproves your assertion that expenses are "income".

Anything my company pays for that I would not have bought myself is not income, and so cannot be included in "take-home". You might have a case with child care vouchers, except if someone isn't working they wouldn't need those, either. A better case would be trivial benefits like the Christmas turkey or flu jab, and the mobile phone. Perhaps the relevant life plan as well, though if I had no income I wouldn't need to protect it.

Quite a few of my clients give senior people mobile phones for work purposes.
I also know other people whose companies give them work mobiles.

They can use them to make a few personal calls and recieve them as well if they wish but most have had their own mobile first, so they use that as friends' and family have that number. Though I have worked with more senior older managers who just use their work mobile for everything.

[WordIsBond]

Quite a few of my clients give senior people mobile phones for work purposes.
I also know other people whose companies give them work mobiles.

Sure. But the fact is if people didn't have it provided by their employer they'd probably be paying for it anyway, so to argue it is "income" has at least some basis in reality. A tax-free benefit that you'd be getting for yourself if your company didn't give it to you is effectively tax-free income.

I'd draw a distinction here between employee benefits and other expenses. A case can be argued that an employee benefit is tax-protected income. In some cases, that is true.

But let's talk about the child care vouchers. Would you be paying for child care if you weren't working, or would you be watching the kids? If the latter, then the child care is not really income, is it? It's an expense incurred because of the work, and having the company pay for it is not giving you income.

But if you'd send the little tykes off so you can browsed dodgy internet sites without being interrupted, then it's income. They are providing you money you would have spent anyway.

So with employee benefits, it depends. It may or may not be "income". With other expenses, it probably isn't (though some travel might be pretty close to that).

[WordIsBond]

Oh right lol, can't account for that but my phone, life insurance, income protection, accountant, milage all adds up. About £200 a week.

So you think accountancy fees are "income"?

You think mileage, getting reimbursed for travel you do for work, is "income"?

I'm guessing "income protection" is a BIK and so does count as income?

[northernladyuk]

So you think accountancy fees are "income"?

You think mileage, getting reimbursed for travel you do for work, is "income"?

I'm guessing "income protection" is a BIK and so does count as income?

IR35 is too good for some people.

[l35kee]

So you think accountancy fees are "income"?

You think mileage, getting reimbursed for travel you do for work, is "income"?

I'm guessing "income protection" is a BIK and so does count as income?

You guessed wrong.