Tech salary sacrifice schemes explained

A tech or home appliance salary sacrifice scheme lets employees spread the cost of items by giving up some salary each month. Since the OpRA rules came in, there’s no real income tax saving on these schemes: the items are treated as a taxable benefit in kind and HMRC usually taxes the full amount of salary that’s been sacrificed. There is still a National Insurance saving for employees, because they pay NIC on a lower salary and NIC is not charged on the benefit itself. Employers may also save some NIC on salary but pay Class 1A NIC on the benefit. From an employment law angle, you must get the employee’s clear agreement, update their contract, ensure their pay does not fall below the National Minimum Wage, and explain how the arrangement might affect things like maternity pay, redundancy pay and notice pay.