In this week’s Q&A, Croner-i advisor Vanessa Matthews, talks about the tax treatment on health checks for employees and whether they fall within benefits in kind
My client’s employee currently has a desk job in an office and is suffering with headaches, but he doesn’t know what is causing them. If my client pays for the employee to have a private medical check-up to see what is causing those headaches, is this a benefit in kind (BIK)?
The medical check-up would be within the scope of the exemption if all it is aiming to do is to check the employee’s state of health providing, per HMRC, it is not connected to medical treatment. The legislation does not mention diagnosis of existing ill health as being within the exemption.
There is a separate exemption in section 320C Income Tax Act (ITEPA) 2003 for medical treatment of up to £500 to enable an absent employee to return to work. Note that medical treatment here specifically includes diagnosis as well as the actual treatment and so it appears from this definition that HMRC differentiates medical treatment from health-screening or check-up. See EIM21776.
