Salary sacrifice: your questions answered - Mintago

Here are some of the questions we hear the most about salary sacrifice. If you have a question that’s not answered here, book a consultation for a more detailed explanation.

Why don’t all your salary sacrifice schemes offer tax savings?

HMRC decides which benefits are exempt from tax. At the time of writing, that includes childcare, pension contributions and bicycles. HMRC may review and change which schemes are classed as tax-free at any time.

All of Mintago’s salary sacrifice schemes offer employee savings via National Insurance.

How much admin is required from my company?

You will need to update contracts for any employees who sign up for salary sacrifice. We will make sure contracts are in place before any salary sacrifice amount is applied.

It’s the employer’s responsibility to ensure salary sacrifice deductions don’t take any of your employees below the National Minimum Wage for the period when it is applied. For more guidance, see below.

You will also need to declare any taxable benefits to HMRC. Our partners will provide you with records of any salary sacrifice amounts throughout the tax year.

There are two ways you can declare taxable benefits to HMRC:

1. End of year P11D form, sent to HMRC. You will also need to submit a P11D(b) which declares your Employer NIC liability to HMRC. P11D submissions can be handled by Mintago for an additional cost.
2. Payrolling benefits. You can apply the benefit to each employee’s payslip in each pay period. However you must register for “payrolling benefits” with HMRC before the start of the tax year. You can’t start payrolling benefits midway through the tax year.

Please book a consultation for a complete explanation of these admin responsibilities.

How can we make sure our employees don’t reduce their salaries below the National Minimum Wage (NMW)?

You are responsible for ensuring each employee’s salary remains above the NMW after deductions have been made. This can be handled by you or your payroll provider .

We will assist with initial eligibility checks if you’re moving to pension salary sacrifice, but this is only based on the salaries and data you provide.

Wasn’t the childcare scheme scrapped in 2018?

Mintago’s Childcare Salary Sacrifice  Scheme is different from the Childcare Vouchers scheme that was closed in 2018. 

Our scheme runs according to the Workplace Nursery scheme guidelines set out by HMRC.

Is Mintago classed as a “Benefit in Kind”?

Mintago’s Financial Wellbeing Platform is not classed as a Benefit in Kind (BIK) in line with HMRC guidelines. We have also had an assessment from PWC to confirm this is the case.

However, apart from the cycle scheme, childcare, and EAP offerings, the benefits we offer are considered as a BIK and each one will require some form of tax reporting to HMRC.