What are the most tax-efficient ways to reward your employees?

The cost-of-living crisis will be impacting your business’s finances, as well as your employees’.

Whilst you want to help your employees out, giving out 10 or 15 per cent pay rises might not be possible.

But there are other ways to reward your employees, without your business’s finances taking a hit.

Consider offering the following:

Salary sacrifice schemes

Different employees will value different perks. So, allowing them to choose whether to give up a proportion of their pay to receive a benefit they want can be a great incentive.

For instance, if some of your employees have children, childcare vouchers are a great way for them to save money.

Whilst they would be sacrificing part of their salary, they will save on tax.

Benefits could be partially or completely exempt from Income Tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs), depending on the circumstances of the individual.

Other common salary sacrifice schemes include being able to buy additional annual leave and the Cycle to Work scheme.

Employee share schemes

Providing your employees with the opportunity to buy shares in your company is not only great for employee retention, but it also has tax benefits.

There are different types of employee share schemes, including:

• Share Incentive Plans
• Save As You Earn (SAYE)
• Company Share Option Plan
• Enterprise Management Incentives (EMIs)

The tax benefits of these schemes vary, as do the limits on how much can be invested.

Employees should be aware that they might have to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) if they sell the shares.

Need advice on tax savings? Contact us.