The Directors take the staff away twice a year for what they descripe as team-building week-ends. All staff are invited (and usually go) and the company pays for everything. We set up a PSA about 6 years ago to cover this but the Directors have only just realised (!) tat this means we are paying tax equivalent to 75-80% of the cost of the trip.
Is there another way to cover the taxes involved in the trip without expecting each employee to pay them?
The team-building week-ends are basically surfing and snow boarding with no meeting times!!
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Is it a BIK at all ?
If starting from scratch I think I would have resisted paying any tax on it at all.
Put a programme together and call it team-building or training. We seemed to do lots of it when I was in Government service and as far as I know there were no tax implications.
Do they have any jobs going?
Surfing and snowboarding weekends on the company sounds great to me!
This isn't team building...
... it's just a jolly!
If you put together some structure activity for the purposes of training/genuine teambuilding (paintballing might even qualify, but surfing and snowboarding aren't really tea, events), then you could get the work-related training exemption to apply. You could even apply for a dispensation up front.
"Staff conferences" and the like are a common occurrence and benefit from the exemption.
The trick is not to start with just doing whatever you like and then try and make it non-taxable, but to find activities that you can put within the scope of the exemption.
I've even heard of people sending their bookkeepers off on spa weekends to make them less stressed and claiming the exemption applies. I still don't see it stretching as far as surfing and snowbaording though.