Boxing and ballet

My company has a number of debenture shares at various sporting and entertainment venues and seats are purchased for various concerts sporting events etc which are used for entertaining clients.

At a company board meeting it was decided that if there is a surplus of seats which are not required for corporate entertaining then they will be offered to staff at about 40% of the cost that the company has to pay for them.

The alternative is that the tickets are wasted but by selling them at a reduced cost the loss is mitigated and staff who would generally be unable to go to the opera ballet etc have the chance to attend such events at a much reduced cost.

Do Taxation readers think that this should be a taxable benefit on the employee?

Query 17 340 – Valentino

Reply by Scorpio