Salary Sacrifice?? Need some advice please

[gagafan]

Hi, I opted into a ss scheme at work for car parking a few years ago. Since then premises have moved and it's not convenient to park anymore at the allocated carpark for which an amount is directly deducted from my salary each month.

Recently, I have managed to either get a lift to new premises location or use the bus which is more convenient than the allocated parking.

I contacted HR to stop my deductions after reading Inland Revenue guidedance notes, which says the rules are down to my employer and they can agree to stop them at there discretion at any time only if I fitted certain criteria. I was emailed to say that my situation did'nt fit the criteria and would have to wait until the end of the financial year therefore would have to carry on paying every month until next April.

This was never made clear to me when I agreed to the scheme, that I could only opt out once a year. ( also I did'nt sign anything) and annoyingly if the premises had not moved there would not have been a problem.

So even though I don't actually use the car park, I still have to still pay for parking. Is there anything I can do about this. Any advice.

Under HMRC rules, if you can return to your original salary at any time it is not a genuine salary sacrifice. HMRC would say that you were paying for car parking with payments being deducted at source, which would mean you were liable for tax on the full (pre-sacrifice) salary.

Normally a salary sacrifice must last for at least 12 months to be valid. It sounds to me like your sacrifice was limited to 12 months at the end of which it would be renewed automatically unless you told your employer otherwise. Your employer should have made this clear to you in the terms of the scheme.

If your employer did not make this clear you may have a case for returning to your original salary immediately. However, this may leave you worse off as HMRC may then decide you should pay additional tax for the last few years on the basis that there was no valid salary sacrifice.

Many schemes incorporate the ability to change the package on 'lifestyle events' such as relocation, parental leave etc. Check the rules for your scheme and see if the fact that 'premises have moved' means you could have elected to change at that time, and if you could but missed your chance see if they will make a concession.

Thanks for your replies Bridge and Anchovy, I'll make some more enquiries and keep my fingers crossed.