Employees lose out after salary sacrifice perks scrapped

If you’re not familiar with the term, then ‘salary sacrifice’ is a bit of a puzzler. Just what is your boss expecting you to sacrifice? A chunk of your wages? A goat in the car park at lunchtime? Put simply, salary sacrifice arrangements enable employees to give up salary in return for benefits-in-kind that are often subject to more favourable tax treatment than their wage packet. They’re a nice little earner for staff and employers as they essentially permit a bypassing of National Insurance (NI) payments. So, employers allow their workers to take a so-called ‘pay cut’ and that money is funnelled into a pension or another benefit such as childcare or a mobile phone. The end result: both parties pay less NI, as well as paying tax on a smaller income. The savings can be considerable. Needless to say, Ministers aren’t entirely thrilled by this arrangement. It costs the Government about £15 billion a year – around £9.5