Work Expenses

[2spensive]

DW works in education and recently went away for a training course. She amassed around £300 expenses and was then reimbursed during the next months payday. Thing is the £300 was lumped on to her monthly salary and she subsequently paid tax/NI on it (confirmed this against recetn payslips).

I pointed out this isn't right. Company expenses should be reimbursed separately and she certainly shouldn't pay tax on it. She said that's always the way it's done and doesn't want to challenge it. I said if an auditor identified that in a payroll audit it would be raised as an issue. Again she has no interest in challenging it. It's BS as she's now out of pocket around £120.

Anyone else in teaching/education had a similar experience when travelling for training etc?

If my dh was this passive I'd be extremely annoyed with them!

Absolutely no way should expenses be taxed. The whole point of them is that you're not supposed to be out of pocket for business travel.

I’d expect it to be a higher tax rate role, if only because they were allowed £300 on expenses they could claim back in a school.

I’m head of tax at a huge multinational that’s currently going through a routine HMRC audit on our expenses. Expenses can be taxable depending on what they are. Many employers pay them tax free and then settle the tax on behalf of the employee through a PAYE settlement agreement. If the employer can’t/ won’t pay the tax on the employees behalf then it should be put through payroll as a taxable benefit. So it’s impossible to know whether they’ve treated it correctly without more information on the expenses reimbursed.

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-cash-sum-payments/rules-for-business-expenses

Also this, if they are valid non-taxable employee expenses.