Salary Exchange (Sacrifice) for SMEs

[Mogul]

Has anyone met any snags implementing SE/SS at an SME?

I have benefited from SS as an employee of two large corporates but both appeared to implement it in slightly differently ways.

Neither appeared to have had much in the way of formal agreements in place to support it.

I’m now running an SME finance function and want to implement it.

From what I can see, there isn’t much that actually needs to be done - you don’t appear to need to get approval in advance from HMRC etc.

I suppose there are scenarios where it would pay to have a properly defined written set of rules in place if something went wrong, but if the scheme is unwritten by the support/goodwill of the board/owner, I can’t imagine that there’s much that could go wrong….

[edc]

Most of the providers have template forms and guides. Have a look at the many providers of cycle to work or perhaps archived pages of child care voucher schemes.

[kent_phil]

We've done the same for cycle 2 work and electric cars, started doing it 18 months ago - size of company is 50 people - I oversaw the process of putting it all in place.

The providers we use generate spreadsheets each month which go straight to our payroll provider with minimal overhead.

Only additional cost has been the payroll provider charging us a small amount for generating P60's for those with cars.

Happy to provide details on who we use but so far it has been operationally zero hassle and a good benefit / retention tool.

We were a bit worried about people leaving and what would happen but the cars have an early termination insurance and the bike is all just settled out of final salary.

The most aggravation was all the paperwork and forms for getting the credit line in place for the cars as we are only just over 3 years old as a company.

Thanks,

Phil