Staff suggestion scheme tax/PRSI exemption?

Staff suggestion scheme BIK tax/PRSI exemption?

From reading the [broken link removed] I see that the staff suggestion scheme allowing tax/PRSI exempt awards to be made to employees in certain circumstances as since been withdrawn and such payments are now subject to BIK tax/PRSI:

10.25 Staff Suggestion Schemes

The previous practice regarding such schemes is
withdrawn with effect from 1 January 2004. Awards
made on or after that date under Staff Suggestion
Schemes are to be treated as giving rise to a taxable
benefit and PAYE and PRSI must be applied to the value
of the award.

Click to expand...

However I have heard unauthoritatively that companies can make an arrangement with their local tax office(r?) for special exemption from this requirement allowing such payments to be made free of tax/PRSI. Is this rubbish or does anybody know if this is actually the case, the conditions that apply and how a company might inquire about availing of this exemption?

So such an exemption (from tax and PRSI) would be at the discretion of the local tax office? Seems highly unlikely.

Or is it that the payment can be made tax free, but it is up to the employee to declare and pay the relevant tax and PRSI?

The information that I was given (which as I say was not very authoritative) was that an arrangement could be made with the local tax office(r) that such payments would be exempt from tax and PRSI. Certainly sounds implausible to me too but just though I'd ask. For what it's worth the information originally came from a Garda so perhaps there is some special allowance for that line of work? Again I doubt it but just wanted to clarify...

Well I'm afraid I can't clarify anything, but such an arrangement would surely be open to abuse (collusion between employees and the local tax office). As for the information coming from a Garda, being from Donegal, I couldn't possibly comment.......

Yeah - as I say I'm also very dubious about this but just wanted to get clarification...

You can give staff €100 per year tax free, so you can keep this for your staff suggestion scheme

Thanks - I was aware of the small gift (?) BIK exemption but the questions about the suggestion scheme were in the context of larger amounts (e.g. up to 10% of gross) potentially being BIK tax/PRSI free (as was the case in the past). I'm assuming that this exemption is no longer available and don't expect to be disabused of this notion but would be delighted if somebody could confirm that there may be some legitimate leeway on this issue!

Best bet is to contact your local tax office just in case. However I would be surprised if the 2004 decision quoted above has been already reversed, on the grounds that there must have been some rationale for its introduction and presumably had it been subsequently rescinded the Revenue would have been obliged under normal customer service standards to make this information generally available to the public.

OK - thanks. I will chase this up with Revenue when I get a chance and will post back with any info that I get.