Employee Issues
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For employers and employees the headline announcements in the Chancellor’s speech were few and far between. Apart from some good news for companies that run Enterprise Management Incentive Schemes – or EMIs – with the maximum individual option grant limit being increased from £100,000 to £120,000, not much else was mentioned in the speech on employers and employees.
Perhaps of most significance are the proposed residence and domicile changes, which will clearly have an effect on internationally mobile and non-UK domiciled employees. The need now to prepare calculations on different bases, to determine whether or not international assignees should elect for the remittance basis, will not be welcomed by employers (in tax equalised cases) or employees.
On EMI, the good news on the increase in the option grant limit has been somewhat tempered by the announcement that the EMI is being brought into line with EU State Aid rules so that firms with more than 249 employees or those involved in shipbuilding, and coal and steel production will no longer be able to qualify for the EMI.There are some further steps around the Green Agenda with a new low rate of 10% for company cars with emissions of 120g/km or less. But it was interesting that, in light of the focus on Green issues, the mooted changes to Authorised Mileage Allowance Payments (“AMAP”) to tie business mileage car reimbursement rates into CO2 emission levels did not materialise. It would seem HMRC have listened to employers on this issue since the administration would have been unduly intricate and involved. Having said this, employment businesses may be looking uncomfortably over their shoulder with the news that VAT benefits around the staff hire concession are disappearing and the message that travel expenses paid to their workers, tax advantaged in certain circumstances, are also under scrutiny.
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