Finance Act 1996

110 PAYE settlement agreements

After section 206 of the Taxes Act 1988 there shall be inserted the following section—

“206A PAYE settlement agreements

(1) PAYE regulations may make provision falling within subsection (2) below about the sums which, as sums in respect of income tax under Schedule E on emoluments of a person’s employees, are to be the sums for which the employer is to be accountable to the Board from time to time.

(2) That provision is provision under which the accountability of the employer, and the sums for which he is to be accountable, are to be determined, to such extent as may be prescribed, in accordance with an agreement between the Board and the employer (“a PAYE settlement agreement”), instead of under PAYE regulations made otherwise than by virtue of this section.

(3) PAYE regulations may provide for a PAYE settlement agreement to allow sums for which an employer is to be accountable to the Board in accordance with the agreement—

(a) to be computed, in cases where there are two or more persons holding employments to which the agreement relates, by reference to a number of those persons all taken together;

(b) to include sums representing income tax on an estimated amount taken, in accordance with the agreement, to be the aggregate of the cash equivalents and other amounts chargeable to tax in respect of—

(i) taxable benefits provided or made available by reason of the employments to which the agreement relates; and

(ii) expenses paid to the persons holding those employments;

and

(c) to be computed in a manner under which the sums for which the employer is accountable do not necessarily represent an amount of income tax payable in respect of income which (apart from the regulations) is assessable under Schedule E on persons holding employments to which the agreement relates.

(4) PAYE regulations may provide—

(a) for an employer who is accountable to the Board under a PAYE settlement agreement for any sum to be so accountable without that sum, or any other sum, being treated for any prescribed purpose as tax deducted from emoluments;

(b) for an employee to have no right to be treated as having paid tax in respect of sums for which his employer is accountable under such an agreement;

(c) for an employee to be treated, except—

(i) for the purposes of the obligations imposed on his employer by such an agreement, and

(ii) to such further extent as may be prescribed,

as relieved from any prescribed obligations of his under the Income Tax Acts in respect of emoluments from an employment to which the agreement relates; and

(d) for such emoluments to be treated as excluded from the employee’s income for such further purposes of the Income Tax Acts, and to such extent, as may be prescribed.

(5) For the purposes of any PAYE regulations made by virtue of this section it shall be immaterial that any agreement to which they relate was entered into before the coming into force of the regulations.

(6) PAYE regulations made by virtue of this section may—

(a) make different provision for different cases; and

(b) contain such incidental, supplemental, consequential and transitional provision as the Board may think fit.

(7) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (6) above, the transitional provision that may be made by virtue of that subsection includes transitional provision for any year of assessment which—

(a) for the purposes of the regulations, treats sums accounted for in that year before the coming into force of the regulations as accounted for in accordance with an agreement as respects which the regulations have effect after they come into force; and

(b) provides, by reference to any provision made by virtue of paragraph (a) above, for income arising in that year before the coming into force of the regulations to be treated as income in relation to which modifications of the Income Tax Acts contained in the regulations apply.

(8) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (6) above, any power of the Board to make PAYE regulations with respect to sums falling to be accounted for under such regulations shall include power to make the corresponding provision with respect to sums falling, by virtue of this section, to be accounted for in accordance with a PAYE settlement agreement.

(9) In this section—

• “employment” means any office or employment the emoluments from which are (or, apart from any regulations made by virtue of this section, would be) assessable to tax under Schedule E, and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly;

• “PAYE regulations” means regulations under section 203;

• “prescribed” means prescribed by PAYE regulations;

• “taxable benefit”, in relation to an employee, means any benefit provided or made available, otherwise than in the form of a payment of money, to the employee or to a person who is, for the purposes of Chapter II of this Part, a member of his family or household;

and references in this section to a time before the coming into force of any regulations include references to a time before the commencement of section 110 of the Finance Act 1996 (by virtue of which this section was inserted in this Act).”