REBA responds to HMRC Consultation on salary sacrifice for the provision of benefits in kind
The REBA response is available to download here
REBA welcomed the review of salary sacrifice. We believe there has been a creep in the number of benefits with dubious credibility which have been included in salary sacrifice schemes. A number of our members have been uncomfortable with these, and we had an initial meeting to discuss how to tackle this in early 2016. As one stated: “I fully understand the argument to remove things like wine. It’s extraordinary that these have been able to exist.”
However, REBA believes we need to guard against losing a few valuable benefits which have not been ring-fenced by the consultation. We note these in our submission and ask that they be relooked at carefully.
REBA takes no specific political line, nor does it make money from the sale of salary sacrifice benefits. Therefore this submission is as independent as possible and attempts to reflect the views of Members in a neutral manner, with bias towards employer responses over adviser/provider responses. The latter are more likely have the resources to make their own submissions, while commonly HR and benefits departments do not. So it is REBA’s responsibility to give the HR/benefits department view more prominence.
In our submission, REBA aimed to conclude a broad consensus of views submitted by its Members and Associate Members. This is to say, not every statement will represent the views of every single member, but they do present a majority view.
