Member

The clarity needed to interpret the rules on optional remuneration arrangements is clearly lacking. While employers and advisers have been doing their best to interpret the rules since they first came out, salary sacrifice pension contributions being brought within the rules on optional remuneration arrangements—they must be the largest in number to benefit from these rules—significantly increases the risk that employers and employees will make mistakes. It would not be so bad if there was only one employer secondary class 1 NIC at stake, but, with employee primary class 1 NICs also being due, this will create friction between employer and employee as to who picks up the tab if a mistake happens. HMRC usually assesses the employer, so it is then a question of whether the employer has a right of recovery against the employee.