Commentary on Sections Glossary Part 3: Employment income: earnings and benefits etc. treated as earnings Section 65: Dispensations relating to benefits within provisions not applicable to lower-paid employment
266.This section, in defined circumstances and subject to certain conditions being met, disapplies the provisions of the benefits code for specified payments, benefits or facilities provided for employees. That reduces the administrative burden on the person responsible for dealing with the payroll aspects of the employee’s employment and on the Inland Revenue. It also means that less information needs to be included in the employee’s self-assessment return. This section derives from section 166 of ICTA.
267.This section is in Chapter 2 of Part 3, which is headed “Taxable benefits: the benefits code”. That is an appropriate location because a dispensation is closely linked with the benefits code and is only applicable to an employee who is not lower-paid.
268.In subsection (1) the reference to “the inspector” in the source legislation has been replaced by the reference to “the Inland Revenue”. See Change 158 in Annex 1.
269.Subsection (1)(a) has the words “to or” inserted before “for”, in relation to payments made to employees. That reflects how the Inland Revenue apply the source legislation, even though it is not quite so worded.
270.Subsection (4) uses the term “dispensation” for the notice that the Inland Revenue gives to the person who has sought it, to authorise the application of this section to the specified payments, benefits or facilities. The section also characterises the dispensation as a notice, which, by virtue of the definition of that word in section 832(1) of ICTA, means that it must be in writing. Taken together these two changes formalise the common name for the authorisation given and confirm the current practice that it must be in writing. See Change 16 in Annex 1.
271.Subsection (6) has a minor change to the process for the revocation of a dispensation that has been given. Instead of requiring notice of the change to be “served” on the person to whom the dispensation was given the provision now requires it to be “given”. See Change 16 in Annex 1.