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Lucky leaver

14 July 2009
Issue: 4214 / Categories: Forum & Feedback
Interest-free loans are made by an employee benefit trust based in Jersey to an employee in the UK. What are the tax implications when the employee subsequently leaves before the loans are repaid? Should the benefit of the loan be taxed as an employment-related benefit or as a termination payment.

A company set up an employee benefit trust (EBT) as a Jersey trust.

Payments were made into it and an individual received interest-free loans from the EBT to buy a property. He has now left the employment but the loans have not been repaid.

I believe that the law now provides that distributions from an EBT in the years after an individual has left employment are taxed as income of the last year in which the employment was held but what about benefits in kind for years after the employment ceased?

Are they taxed in the normal way and declared on a self-assessment tax return or in some different way or different year?

I have suggested to the client that he needs to clarify exactly what he is entitled to under the terms of the trust. He thinks that there are funds that are earmarked for him...

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