Forum Home → Discussion → Covid-19 issues → Thread
Workers facing income tax bill for coronavirus tests paid for by employer
The Treasury Committee says that HMRC guidance published on 6 July 2020 clarified that a coronavirus test paid for by an employer will be considered a taxable benefit, with the result that that employees will pay income tax when their employer pays for a test.
Chiar of the Treasury Committee Mel Stride comments that -
Many employees, especially healthcare and hospitality workers, are required to undergo regular coronavirus testing. This new guidance is unclear and will worry a large number of workers.
If these tests are to be treated as a taxable benefit in kind, the tax bill for workers could soon mount up.
Many of our key workers could be faced with the perverse incentive of avoiding employer-sponsored tests in order to reduce their tax bill.
This cannot be right. I’ve asked the Chancellor to look into this as soon as possible.’
Yep - here’s new Treasury Committee page with letter from Rishi Sunak confirming the introduction of a new exemption from income tax for employer-provided COVID19 antigen tests.