Childcare voucher scheme service

Childcare Voucher Schemes are a Tax- and NI-free way to meet all, or some, childcare costs. Vouchers are supplied by the employer to the employee to pay for childcare. Vouchers are a non-taxable benefit that is processed through payroll. Salary sacrifice, salary addition and flex benefits packages are normally the way the vouchers are accounted for. It is a quite flexible system but the method of your scheme if you are an employer and whether you should join it as an employee should be carefully considered, preferably by your accountant as part of ongoing tax planning.

Yes. Childcare costs that you pay for directly or by vouchers is not included in tax credit calculations. Reducing employees’ cash pay may also affect their entitlement. DNS will calculate how much Childcare Vouchers will affect your Working and Child Tax Credit entitlements, or you can call the Tax Credits helpline on 0845 300 3900.

Registered and approved childcare includes registered childminders, nurseries and play schemes, including out-of-hours clubs on school premises run by a school or local authority, approved providers, for example, an out-of-school-hours scheme. Approved childcare in the child’s home includes a registered childminder or another registered person such as a domiciliary worker or nurse from a registered agency.

Electronic vouchers are credited to an online account which the employee accesses to pay the carer via the Internet or telephone. For electronic vouchers, employees are provided with an online account to manage their own Childcare Voucher funds. Paper vouchers are posted direct to the home address of the employee, which they hand to the carer as payment themselves.

Although the Childcare Voucher Scheme (which is operated as a tax and NI efficient benefit) must be generally available to all employees, this does not mean that all employees must participate. Some employees cannot participate, such as those without children in qualifying childcare (some people choose to ask a friend or family member), those that do not earn enough, or those who already benefit from Working and Child Tax Credits and it is not considered advantageous for tax purposes for them to join.

It is up to the employer how the Childcare Voucher Scheme is administered; and the way the scheme is administered may or may not be advantageous to the employee. To take advantage of the tax and NI exemption the scheme must comply with the HMRC guidelines.

No, not if you operate a salary sacrifice scheme handled through payroll, as it will not be a benefit in kind.

You can either telephone your account manager at DNS to discuss, or go to the HMRC website and take a look at the following documents:

• http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/employersupportedchildcare.pdf
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/paying-for-childcare-getting-help-from-your-employer-leaflet-ir115
• http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/thelibrary/esc-qa.htm
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employer-supported-childcare

Yes, vouchers can pay a single carer or multiple carers so long as the employee has requested the funds then vouchers can be issued to a number of registered carers.

From April 2011, new joiners to Childcare Voucher Schemes are better off by the following amounts:

HMRC state that you can claim for childcare costs as soon as your child is born, and you can then save the vouchers to go towards future approved childcare costs. A parent can request vouchers for a particular carer, or request funding to an account if the childcare provider is unknown and/or save the allowance to use later in the same tax year.

No, regular school fees cannot be paid with Child Care Vouchers, but after-school activities are allowable.

No, vouchers are valid for 12 months, so they can be used at a later date.

If both parents are employed then both parents are eligible to receive vouchers even if they work for the same employer.

Receiving Childcare Vouchers can affect entitlement to Working and Child Tax Credits although by reducing salary with a salary sacrifice Childcare Voucher Scheme, it may entitle the tax payer to a higher element of the Working Tax Credit, in turn reducing entitlement to the Childcare element of the credit. There’s a calculator on the HMRC website www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs/ccin.htm to look at the figures, or contact your account manager at DNS to discuss further and go through the figures.

No. The tax and NI contribution exemptions only apply to the benefits an employer gives to an employee, so self-employed people are not eligible.