Do you consider the tax implications of reward schemes?

The first poll asked the payroll community if the tax and National Insurance Contribution (NIC) costs are considered when deciding what’s included in Christmas reward schemes.

Of the 148 responses received 58 percent do not provide any kind of seasonal reward scheme, but of the remaining 42 percent - over half said the tax and NIC costs were a consideration.

15 percent said that the costs were not a consideration in decision-making at all, and the minority of five percent recognised that the costs should have been factored in to decisions, but they actually had not.

Payroll professionals are in a unique position to really help their business. With payroll being one of the biggest expenditure of any business, it has a major influence over company costs.

The knowledge held by payroll professionals is key to efficiency savings within an organisation; the tax and NIC costs of reward packages being a prime example.

As the CIPP reiterated in its Future of Payroll report, the information that payroll must hold to adhere to regulations is essential to strategic business making. It can provide business intelligence and analytics regarding an organisation’s most valuable asset - its employees and one of its highest costs, their pay.

The Future of Payroll (2017-18) report is the first research paper in a series, to be produced annually, which goes some way to predicting the future of payroll. It anticipates the developments based on the responses provided by payroll professionals, representing 2.3 million employees in the UK.

The CIPP have now completed research for the 2018-19 report and it will be interesting to see some of the emerging trends when comparing year-on-year results. We will publish the report when it becomes available later in the year.