Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

Vouchers etc.

141 Non-cash vouchers

(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section and section 157(3), where a non-cash voucher provided for an employee by reason of his employment is received by the employee, then, for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts—

(a) he shall be treated as having received in the relevant year of assessment an emolument from his employment of an amount equal to the expense incurred by the person providing the voucher in or in connection with the provision of the voucher and the money, goods or services for which it is capable of being exchanged; and

(b) any money, goods or services obtained by the employee or any other person in exchange for the voucher shall be disregarded;

and the expense incurred as mentioned in paragraph (a) above by the person providing the voucher is referred to below as “the chargeable expense”.

(2) In subsection (1)(a) above “the relevant year of assessment” means—

(a) in relation to a cheque voucher, the year of assessment in which the voucher is handed over in exchange for money, goods or services (a voucher which is posted being treated as handed over at the time of posting); and

(b) in relation to any other non-cash voucher, the year of assessment in which the chargeable expense is incurred or, if later, the year of assessment in which the voucher is received by the employee.

(3) There shall be deductible under section 198, 201 or 332(3) from the amount taxable under subsection (1) above such amounts, if any, as would have been so deductible if the cost of the goods or services in question had been incurred by the employee out of his emoluments.

(4) The chargeable expense shall be treated as reduced by any part of that expense made good to the person incurring it by the employee.

(5) Where a non-cash voucher provided for an employee by reason of his employment is appropriated to him (whether by attaching it to a card held for him or in any other way), subsections (1) and (2) above shall have effect as if the employee had received the voucher at the time when it was so appropriated.

(6) Subsections (1) and (2) above shall not apply in relation to a transport voucher provided for an employee of a passenger transport undertaking under arrangements in operation on 25th March 1982 and intended to enable that employee or a relation of his to obtain passenger transport services provided by—

(a) his employer;

(b) a subsidiary of his employer;

(c) a body corporate of which his employer is a subsidiary; or

(d) another passenger transport undertaking.

(7) In this section—

• “cheque voucher” means a cheque provided for an employee and intended for use by him wholly or mainly for payment for particular goods or services or for goods or services of one or more particular classes; and, in relation to a cheque voucher, references to a voucher being exchanged for goods or services shall be construed accordingly;

• “passenger transport undertaking” means an undertaking whose business consists wholly or mainly in the carriage of passengers and includes a subsidiary of such an undertaking;

• “subsidiary” means a wholly owned subsidiary within the meaning of section 736(5)(b) of the [1985 c. 6.] Companies Act 1985;

• “transport voucher” means any ticket, pass or other document or token intended to enable a person to obtain passenger transport services (whether or not in exchange for it) and, in relation to a transport voucher, references to a voucher being exchanged for services shall be construed as references to it being exchanged for, or otherwise being used to procure, services; and

• “non-cash voucher” does not include a cash voucher within the meaning of section 143 but, subject to that, means any voucher, stamp or similar document or token capable of being exchanged (whether singly or together with other such vouchers, stamps, documents or tokens and whether immediately or only after a time) for money, goods or services (or for any combination of two or more of those things) and includes a transport voucher and a cheque voucher.

142 Credit-tokens

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section and section 157(3), where a credit-token is provided for an employee by reason of his employment, then, for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts—

(a) on each occasion on which the employee uses the credit-token to obtain money, goods or services he shall be treated as having received an emolument from his employment of an amount equal to the expense incurred by the person providing the credit-token in or in connection with the provision of the money, goods or services obtained; and

(b) any money, goods or services obtained by the employee by use of the credit-token shall be disregarded.

(2) There shall be deductible under section 198, 201 or 332(3) from the amount taxable under subsection (1) above such amounts, if any, as would have been so deductible if the cost of the goods or services in question had been incurred by the employee out of his emoluments.

(3) The expense incurred by the person providing the credit-token as mentioned in subsection (1)(a) above shall be treated as reduced by any part of that expense made good to that person by the employee.

(4) In this section “credit-token” means a card, token, document or other thing given to a person by another person who undertakes—

(a) that on the production of it (whether or not some other action is also required) he will supply money, goods and services (or any of them) on credit; or

(b) that where, on the production of it to a third party (whether or not some other action is also required) the third party supplies money, goods and services (or any of them), he will pay the third party for them (whether or not taking any discount or commission);

but does not include a non-cash voucher or a cash voucher.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4) above, the use of an object to operate a machine provided by the person giving the object, or by a third party, shall be treated as production of the object to that person or, as the case may be, third party.

143 Cash vouchers taxable under P.A.Y.E

(1) Where a cash voucher provided for an employee by reason of his employment is received by the employee, then, subject to subsection (5) below, for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts (and in particular section 203)—

(a) he shall be treated as being paid by his employer, at the time when he receives the voucher, an emolument of his employment equal to the sum of money for which the voucher is capable of being exchanged as mentioned in subsection (3) below; and

(b) any money obtained by the employee or any other person in exchange for the voucher shall be disregarded.

(2) Where a cash voucher provided for an employee by reason of his employment is appropriated to him (whether by attaching it to a card held for him or in any other way), subsections (1) and (5) of this section shall have effect as if the employee had received the voucher at the time when it was so appropriated.

(3) In this section “cash voucher” (subject to subsection (4) below) means any voucher, stamp or similar document capable of being exchanged (whether singly or together with such other vouchers, stamps or documents, and whether immediately or only after a time) for a sum of money greater than, equal to or not substantially less than the expense incurred in providing the voucher by the person who provides it (whether or not it is also capable of being exchanged for goods or services), except that it does not include—

(a) any document intended to enable a person to obtain payment of the sum mentioned in the document, being a sum which if paid to him directly would not have been chargeable to income tax under Schedule E; or

(b) a savings certificate the accumulated interest payable in respect of which is exempt from tax (or would be so exempt if certain conditions were satisfied).

(4) Where—

(a) a voucher, stamp or similar document is capable of being exchanged (as mentioned above) for a sum of money substantially less than the expense incurred in providing the voucher by the person who provides it, and

(b) the difference or part of the difference represents the cost to that person of providing benefits in connection with sickness, personal injury or death,

then, in determining whether the voucher, stamp or document is a cash voucher within the meaning of this section, the expense incurred by him in providing it shall be treated as reduced by that difference or part.

(5) Subsection (1) above shall not apply to a cash voucher received by an employee if, at the time when the voucher is received, the scheme under which it was issued is a scheme approved by the Board for the purposes of this subsection; and the Board shall not approve a scheme for those purposes unless satisfied that it is practicable for income tax in respect of all payments made in exchange for vouchers issued under the scheme to be deducted in accordance with regulations under section 203.

144 Supplementary provisions

(1) If a person furnishes to the inspector a statement of the cases and circumstances in which non-cash vouchers or credit-tokens are provided for any employees (whether his own or those of anyone else) and the inspector is satisfied that no additional tax is payable under section 141 or 142 by reference to the vouchers or tokens mentioned in the statement, the inspector shall notify the person accordingly and nothing in those sections shall apply to the provision of those vouchers or tokens or their use.

(2) The inspector may, if in his opinion there is reason to do so, by notice served on the person to whom the notification under subsection (1) above was given, revoke the notification, either as from the date of its making or as from such later date as may be specified in the notice under this subsection; and all such income tax becomes chargeable, and all such returns are to be made by that person and by the employees in question, as would have been chargeable or would have had to be made in the first instance if the notification under subsection (1) above had never been given or, as the case may be, it had ceased to have effect on the specified date.

(3) For the purposes of sections 141 and 142 where a person incurs expense in or in connection with the provision by him of non-cash vouchers or credit-tokens for two or more employees as members of a group or class, the expense incurred in respect of any one of them shall be taken to be such part of that expense as is just and reasonable.

(4) For the purposes of sections 141, 142 and 143 and this section—

(a) a non-cash voucher, cash voucher or credit-token provided for an employee by his employer shall be deemed to be provided for him by reason of his employment; and

(b) any reference to a non-cash voucher, cash voucher or credit-token being provided for or received by an employee includes a reference to it being provided for or received by a relation of his.

(5) In sections 141, 142, 143 and this section—

• “cash voucher” has the meaning given by section 143(3);

• “credit-token” has the meaning given by section 142(4);

• “employee” means the holder of any office or employment the emoluments in respect of which fall to be assessed under Schedule E; and related expressions shall be construed accordingly;

• “non-cash voucher” has the meaning given by section 141(7); and

• “relation”, with respect to an employee, means his spouse, parent or child, the spouse of his child and any dependant of that employee.