Benefits in Kind (BIKs) have always been an administrative nightmare for employers, with the amount of paperwork generated sometimes out of all proportion to the value of the benefit to the employee.



Employers will therefore welcome the consultation on BIKs, published by the Office of Tax Simplification, which has made a number of proposals that, it is hoped, will be introduced by April 2016.



Two of the more important proposals are:

• the replacement of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) ‘dispensations’ with a simple deduction for expenses incurred by employees in the performance of their employment. It is intended that details of such payments will no longer have to be submitted to HMRC and claimed as a deduction by the employee on his or her own tax return; and
• the removal of the need to keep records for trivial BIK payments.