Tax dispenser

We act for a limited company in the security industry that employs more than 500 guards all on PAYE.

Back in 2008 the clients were told by other operators in the sector that they could apply for a special dispensation to HMRC regarding travel costs incurred by employees getting to their sites and also for subsistence.

The basis of this was that – once granted – the first say £20 a week would be classed as a disbursement reimbursement for wages-processing purposes.

The knock-on effect was obviously a reduction in employer and employee National Insurance contributions and PAYE tax.

We looked into this extensively but the problem was that a large percentage of the static guards were working on the same contracts necessitating the same journeys over a long time.

This flagged...