But in doing so, benefits themselves can pose a variety of risks to an organisation. Company cars, for example, can be the cause of multiple risks to employee health and safety if appropriate controls and measures are not put in place to manage them.
As long as employers are aware of the possible risks that benefits could pose, however, there are numerous measures that can be put in place to ensure these do not become problematic for their organisation.
One area in which it can be all too easy for employers to inadvertently fall foul of their regulatory requirements is benefits tax and legislation. The seemingly never-ending stream of changes to benefits tax and legislation rules can make keeping up to date feel like a full-time job for organisations at times.
But it is not all bad news. The plethora of tax and national insurance efficiencies available on benefits can be advantageous for both employers and employees.
This is why we have compiled a guide to benefits tax as part of this month’s report on tax-efficient benefits.
One of the biggest changes to tax-efficient benefits this year will take effect in autumn, when childcare vouchers will be replaced by the government’s new tax-free childcare scheme. Employees who are already signed up to a childcare voucher scheme before this time will be able to continue to use it for as long as their employer offers it. However, in the future this will no longer be an option for staff looking to take up the vouchers.
Such changes are driving a number of employers to think more strategically about their benefits offering, examples of which we saw at the Employee Benefits Awards judging, which took place in March. As always, we saw numerous examples of creativity, innovation and best practice on display.
See the full list of Employee Benefits Awards 2015 finalists here.
Big congratulations are due to all of our finalists. Once again, the standard of entries was extremely high this year, and our panel of judges had an exceedingly tough job selecting the employers that made our shortlist.
Winners will be announced on 12 June at the 13th annual Employee Benefits Awards. I hope to see you there!
Debbie Lovewell-Tuck
Editor
Tweet: @DebbieLovewell
