Section 72: Payroll deduction schemes: contributions to agents’ expenses
285.This section allows an employer a deduction for expenses incurred in operating a payroll deduction scheme. It is based on section 86A of ICTA. The corresponding rule for income tax is in section 72 of ITTOIA.
286.The main rules for payroll deduction schemes are found in Part 12 of ITEPA. Under such a scheme an employer deducts charitable donations from employees’ salaries and pays them to an agent, who distributes them to the employees’ chosen charities.
287.The agent’s administrative costs may be deducted from the donations. But many employers voluntarily pay the costs themselves so that the employees’ full donations can go to the chosen charities.
288.Normally, payments made voluntarily to meet someone else’s expenses are not made wholly and exclusively for the purposes of a trade and therefore would not be deductible. Employers might get relief for donations to charitable agencies under the Gift Aid scheme. But there are restrictions on the operation of that scheme and relief would not be available if the agent was not itself a charity.
289.This section gives relief for the expenses as a trading deduction.
290.The section does not rewrite the reference to “profession or vocation” in Schedule D Case II. See Change 2 in Annex 1.
