03 August 2012
•
The number of employees receiving taxable benefits in kind has fallen by 300,000 since 2004, HMRC data reveals.
P11D beneficiaries fell 7.5% from almost 4 million to 3,670,000 between 2004 and 2011, with the sharpest drop in recipients of vans and car fuel.
The taxable value of benefits mirrored the decline, falling from £7.5bn to £7.2bn.
Despite the overall decline, provision of a number of specific benefits rose.
The number of employees receiving transferred assets such as a house or a car doubled between 2004 and 2011, while beneficial loans grew by 44%.
Provision of private medical and dental benefits also remained strong, reaching just over 2 million employees over the seven years monitored.
Commenting on the figures, Helm Godfrey deputy head of employee benefits Ed Smithson said that the consistent demand for private medical insurance tallied with his company's experience.
"PMI is the most popular taxable benefit and most companies would be unlikely to stop offering it unless they got into very serious financial difficulties," he said.
"So while there is no doubt that companies' bottom lines have come under pressure generally over the past few years, I think most businesses, if they were looking to reduce costs, would want to redesign their PMI packages - consider changes to the level of cover provided, the introduction of excesses and so on - rather than pull the plug on them completely."
