Directors' Trivial BIK from April 2016 (close companies)

Is the £300 cap for the close company in total?

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I have cut and pasted the new Trivial BIK information, HMRC publised on 9Dec15.  Can someone confirm their understanding of this - there seems to be a difference of opinion between people I have asked - is the £300 BIK tax and NIC exempt amount per director or per close company in total?

I have read M5002 Technical Note from HMRC which in example 4 suggests the cap is per director.  

 

My client wants to purchase John Lewis vouchers but the good purchased can be refunded for cash - thus making it a cash voucher....so I think the answer is no they can't buy JL vouchers...?

 

I welcome comments on a. is the £300 a cap on the close company and b. would store vouchers be deemed as cash vouchers?  Many thanks

Legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2016 to amend Chapter 11 of Part 4 of ITEPAto provide a statutory definition of a trivial BiK. The exemption sets out a number of conditions that must be met for a BiK to be exempt, including an upper limit per individual BiK of £50.

Qualifying trivial BiKs provided to directors and other office holders of close companies will be subject to an annual cap of £300. Where the director’s or other office holder’s family or household member is also an employee of the company, they will be subject to a £300 cap in their own right. This change addresses a potential loophole.

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By jennytcrowley
26th Oct 2016 17:09

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-exemption-for-trivial-ben...

Hi, according to the the hmrc guidance above vouchers given to employees of less than £50 are ok as trivial benefits providing they cant be cashed. I would therefore advise the client to choose a different store for vouchers if JL ones can be cashed.
Multiple trivial benefits can be given, the £300 annual total applies to directors, but I haven't spotted the annual maximum for ordinary staff is there is one?

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Stepurhan
By stepurhan
27th Oct 2016 09:26

Surprisingly, there was a decent article on this very site about trivial benefits this week. (It saddens me that this is a surprise, but oh well).

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tax/business-tax/trivial-benefits-far-fr...

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