John Tinsley, Director Compandben Companies, writes:
At the end of 2018 we lost a North American client that had been with us for two years or so. We provided a service whereby Compandben employed staff in Australia, Spain and UK. We lost the Australia and UK business but kept the Spanish business. Now effective May 2019 the client is bringing back the Australia and UK employees into our employment service, so we will be employing staff in three countries on behalf of the client.
We are delighted of course with the vote of confidence but there is an unfortunate twist. One of the employees was on a UK scheme for childcare vouchers; the employee makes a "salary sacrifice" from Gross salary: this is paid to a childcare voucher firm: and the employee received vouchers which can be used for the purchase of childcare. It is a tax effective scheme. Unfortunately the service is no longer available to new staff. The employee that benefited from the scheme is deemed to have left our employment 31/12/2018 and now cannot benefit from the vouchers on his rehire, as the UK government has abandoned the salary sacrifice element. Employers can still grant the childcare vouchers but it is a taxable benefit. If the employee had stayed with Compandben International Ltd he would have been able to continue benefiting from the service.
John Tinsley, Director Compandben Companies
Cambridge UK and Geneva Switzerland