Employees can now make big savings through a ‘salary sacrifice’ arrangement between their employer and Go North East that complies with tax requirements to deliver significant savings on travel to work whilst contributing to corporate social responsibility aims.
Once a scheme is in place, employees can sign up during any month of the year or in accordance with any existing opportunities to join benefits schemes provided by an employer.
The employer saves on the National Insurance contributions associated with the ticketing costs. The scheme complies with tax regulations and pilot schemes have already been approved. Administration follows an established pattern of salary sacrifice schemes such as for the purchase of computers, child-care and bicycles. There is no significant financial outlay from the employer. For employers who have not previously run salary sacrifice schemes we are happy to provide support based on our own experience.
Go North East’s salary sacrifice ticketing scheme is very different to other schemes: it requires no bulk purchase or commitment to a minimum number of tickets by the employer to achieve a discount. The scale of the discounts available to employees is greater – the combined tax and NI benefits provide travel at a greater discount to the employee than most travel schemes typically are able to provide. Tax rules limit the salary sacrifice opportunity to local bus services: it is not possible to get the same benefits for rail or Metro, nor on multi-modal tickets such as Network Travel Tickets.
Commercial Director Martin Harris or Sales Manager Stephen King will be happy to talk to employers about the scheme and provide details on the substantial employee benefits it delivers and its scope for adding to corporate social responsibility agendas, or just its potential for making more space available in the car park!
Contact Joanne Moore on 0191 422 9248 - email