Allowance for staff over the festive period

Christmas events

The provision of an annual staff party at Christmas time, or indeed any other time of the year, is tax free benefit for the employee as long as it meets the under the following criteria:

• The event must be open to all members of staff and not just a select few;
• The annual cost per person must not exceed £150.

The £150 exemption applies per person and therefore also applies to the partners/guests of employees; this also includes retired or past employees with their partners.

The £150 is not an allowance; once the limit has been exceeded the total expenditure will be treated as a benefit in kind, not just the excess amount over the £150. (E.g. if the cost per head is £200 and your employee brings a partner the employer will be taxed on a benefit value of the full £400 – 2 X 200)

Please note that references to staff/employees do not include self-employed, partners or sole traders. For any further on information please contact your client manager.

Temporary Workers

At this time of year it is not uncommon for employers to recruit temporary staff  to help meet the demand of  their  increased workload during the festive period. A temporary worker is someone employed for a limited period of time and this situation is acknowledged  by both parties when employment commences.

UK law makes no distinction between 'permanent' and  'temporary' employees and  temporary workers are  therefore  entitled to receive the same employment rights as  permanent employees.  In some cases it may  be  the policy of the business  that employees serve a minimum period before being entitled to these rights and therefore some temporary workers will not qualify. 

As an employer please be aware that some employment rights such as discrimination on the grounds of age, race, sex,  disability or religion have no minimum service qualifications.

It  is not uncommon to use an employment agency to recruit temporary workers,  and as those workers will be working for the agency  their contractual terms may vary from those of the permanent employees working in the same company.

For any further advice on employing temporary workers over the Christmas period  please email Cheryl@stephen-hill.co.uk