Massage at work - is it a benefit in kind?

Employer wants to provide a weekly 10 minute massage to his employees

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A small employer client of mine wishes to help destress his employees (50 max) by providing  fortnightly Indian Head Massages on company premises during the working day.  I am thinking that this may be a benefit in kind but cannot be sure.

Any advice would be welcome.

 

Thx

Replies (36)

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By Accountant A
20th Feb 2019 13:47

If you are a practicing accountant, all you need to do is to apply the basic rules to determine the extent and calculation of the benefit. What is your thinking on the matter?

If you aren't a practicing accountant, you should ask your accountant.

If it helps, if it's the employer doing it, no benefit but the risk of workplace harassment claims.

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By Rweaver
20th Feb 2019 13:52

The thought of my employer running his oiled hands all over my glorious body makes me shudder. Thank god it’s only a head massage.

There wouldn’t be a benefit in the tax or destressing sense.

Basic principles.

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Replying to Rweaver:
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By Mr_awol
11th Oct 2022 11:22

It works both ways. It would probably be more distressing than destressing (on both sides to be fair) if i had to give my lot a good old run-down once a fortnight....

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
20th Feb 2019 13:53

If HMRC get wind of this I cannot see it having a happy ending.

Boom Boom.

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Replying to Glennzy:
ALISK
By atleastisoundknowledgable...
20th Feb 2019 14:05

Itsu used to do a chocolate brownie called a “happy ending”. It’s now called “Choco brownie”. :(

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By Tax Dragon
20th Feb 2019 14:05

If there's a cost to the employer, it's taxable (Pt3 Ch10).

If the employer's business is the provision of Indian Head Massages, it's taxable.

In (any) other circumstances (I can think of, though Ruddles (RIP) did once accuse me of having no imagination), this should not be happening.

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Replying to Tax Dragon:
All Paul Accountants in Leeds
By paulinleeds
22nd Feb 2019 11:02

You can use the £50 trivial benefit rules for your staff, so long as the massages are not contractual and does not become customary.

If the employer's business is the provision of Indian Head Massages (and if for any reason it's not covered by the £50 trivial benefit rules) then you must apply the Pepper v Hart rule a look at the marginal cost of providing this. This could be the amount paid to the masseuse, though if they are internal and have free capacity then there is no marginal cost.

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Replying to paulinleeds:
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By mwalker
22nd Feb 2019 11:53

I don't know why, but the inclusion of "masseuse" and "internal" in the same sentence bothers me a little...

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Replying to Tax Dragon:
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By The Dullard
17th Feb 2022 01:39

ITEPA 2003, s 261 doesn't agree with you.

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Replying to The Dullard:
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By Tax Dragon
17th Feb 2022 10:18

I wonder how many practitioners* agree with you.

*Of Indian head massage, not accountancy.

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By Rammstein1
20th Feb 2019 14:14

I've not looked into this but would it be covered by £50 trivial benefits?

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ALISK
By atleastisoundknowledgable...
20th Feb 2019 14:23

What is cost to the employer for each employees head massage? Is it contractual that they have them fortnightly?

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Replying to atleastisoundknowledgable...:
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By gbolton
20th Feb 2019 14:33

£12.50 per employee and no, it wouldn't be contractual

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paddle steamer
By DJKL
20th Feb 2019 15:16

I think some provision for the legal expenses re the employment tribunal issues might be quite appropriate.

It reminds me of the lady who ran our payroll department when I worked FT in practice, she would keep saying re one client

"Mr B******* has got another of his staff pregnant again", what of course she intended to say is, "Mr B****** has another member of staff on SMP"

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boxfile
By spilly
20th Feb 2019 23:28

But who would want to sit around for the rest of the day with oily hair? I don’t think the Brylcreem look has resurfaced again just yet.

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Replying to spilly:
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By DaveyJonesLocker
21st Feb 2019 07:16

Massage oil isn't used in Indian Head massage.

No point giving staff them though. When I have mine, I'm so relaxed after the last thing I'd feel like doing is working.

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Replying to DaveyJonesLocker:
Caroline
By accountantccole
21st Feb 2019 12:05

I was thinking this - any massage I have ever had has left me incapable of doing anything other than having a glass of wine and sitting still.....unlikely to improve efficiency

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By agwilshaw
22nd Feb 2019 11:01

What about 'trivial benefits'? Seems to happily fit inside that exemption.

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By EllaB
22nd Feb 2019 11:17

For a benefit provided every 2 weeks you might find HMRC argue that this is not a trivial benefit - the below is from the draft technical guidance:

The vast majority of employers will only provide their employees with benefits that are not linked to particular services on an irregular or infrequent basis. There is a cost to the employer of providing such benefits and the employer will want to be careful in managing its employment costs. Therefore, if an employer provides their employees with benefits on a regular or frequent basis you should consider whether they are linked to the employee’s services.

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

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By Michael C Feltham
22nd Feb 2019 13:31

All depends upon the definition of "Head" I suppose...

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Replying to Michael C Feltham:
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By Vile Nortin Naipaan
22nd Feb 2019 13:45

Head: a word often suitably preceded by d i c k.

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By WhichTyler
22nd Feb 2019 14:00

surely a PSA would be the best way to manage this ratherv than tracking who had a massage when?

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By tracey2412
22nd Feb 2019 15:58

assuming any treatment is being provided by a qualified & insured professional therapist as part of a raft of measures to improve staff wellbeing ( a big trend for good employers & why not?), available to all but not mandatory at all, does that make it a taxable BIK or just a nice thing that this company does ? isn't it like a staff canteen? or health checks? or access to a counsellor? or anything like that? Asking as a friend of mine is a therapist & a part of her business is to go into the corporate environment to promote wellbeing & self-care. If it's a BIK, I think she ought to know that as he clients will need to know. If it's not & it can be put against C.Tax, then she could use that as a selling point to the employers! Thanks for any clarification.

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Replying to tracey2412:
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By Rweaver
22nd Feb 2019 16:31

*facepalm*

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By VictoriaLondon42
16th Feb 2022 16:15

Our accountant had a client investigation in which this was inspected, and argued as well as they could about the productivity angle, but HMRC's reply was "cute, no."

Maybe if you provide wine and cheese alongside?

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Replying to VictoriaLondon42:
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By Hugo Fair
16th Feb 2022 21:12

You're determined to up the harassment quotient aren't you? :=)

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By The Dullard
17th Feb 2022 01:41

23 posts and the best guesses are taxable, trivial benefits, or PSA, none of which are appropriate. RTFL boys and girls.

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By The Dullard
17th Feb 2022 01:41

No. End of.

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By PatySimson
10th Oct 2022 15:51

Everyone will benefit from this offer, both employees and employers and, accordingly, their company as a performer, why not?

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By Hugo Fair
10th Oct 2022 16:22

Why has this thread been resuscitated (yet again)?

Every time I read OP's intro:
"A small employer client of mine wishes to help destress his employees"
... I hear the words as 'distress his employees'!

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Replying to Hugo Fair:
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By Tax Dragon
10th Oct 2022 16:57

The trick is not to read out loud.

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Replying to Tax Dragon:
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By Paul Crowley
10th Oct 2022 17:11

Either way it is a word that should not exist
Even Google looks for it to be distress

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Replying to Paul Crowley:
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By Tax Dragon
10th Oct 2022 17:26

The one that gets me is predate.

I assume both should have a hy-phen.

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Replying to Tax Dragon:
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By Hugo Fair
10th Oct 2022 17:48

Indeed, which is possibly why I've always "read out loud" (albeit silently) ... as I find it helps to locate the emphasis across syllables and thus identify the need for a hyphen (even per your joke spelling).

FWIW I'd always assumed that it was a personal idiosyncrasy ('hearing' what I'm reading within my head or rehearsing a thought before committing it to writing) ... and that it resulted from the way that I learned English as a child - more via reading than by conversation.
However I've now discovered that others do the same (including Paul I believe), so it's just the way that different brains work - in my case being more naturally comfortable with numbers and patterns than language, and so treating words like mathematical symbols to illustrate a concept.

But I like the idea of a sabre-toothed tiger predating a Neolithic caveman - and thinking to itself "that'll teach him to omit my hyphen".

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Replying to Hugo Fair:
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By paulwakefield1
11th Oct 2022 08:01

I thought predating was that period of time before you could persuade the object of your affections to go on a real date.

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Replying to paulwakefield1:
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By Hugo Fair
11th Oct 2022 10:54

Ooh, a new question ... so what defines whether or not a date is real?
Maybe the occurrence or not of an exchange of consideration, or have I just lowered the tone too far?

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