Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003

Childcare

318 Care for children

(1) No liability to income tax arises by virtue of Chapter 10 of Part 3 (taxable benefits: residual liability to charge) in respect of the provision for an employee of care for a child if conditions A to C are met.

(2) If those conditions are met only as respects part of the provision, no such liability arises in respect of that part.

(3) Condition A is that the child is under 18 and—

(a) is a child of the employee maintained at the employee’s expense,

(b) is resident with the employee, or

(c) is a child in respect of whom the employee has all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and the child’s property.

In paragraph (a) “child” includes stepchild.

(4) Condition B is that—

(a) the premises on which the care is provided are not used wholly or mainly as a private dwelling, and

(b) any applicable registration requirement is met with respect to the premises.

(5) In subsection (4), “registration requirement” means a requirement that a person providing the care is registered under—

(a) section 71 or Part 10A of the Children Act 1989 (c. 41), or

(b) Article 118 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (S.I.1995/755 (N.I. 2)),

with respect to premises.

(6) Condition C is that—

(a) the premises on which the care is provided are made available by the employer alone, or

(b) the care requirements are met.

(7) The care requirements are that—

(a) the care is provided under arrangements made by persons who include the employer,

(b) the premises on which it is provided are made available by one or more of those persons, and

(c) under the arrangements the employer is wholly or partly responsible for financing and managing the provision of the care.

(8) In this section “care” means—

(a) any form of care, and

(b) any form of supervised activity which is not provided primarily for education purposes.