It has been standard practice in many areas to give a small sum to hard-working members to show gratitude for their efforts. This is often called, perhaps mistakenly, an honorarium. As we move into self-management with more work involved, we obviously want to increase this sum slightly but checking the HMRC pages we learn that honoraria, if regular and expected, are more like wages and subject to tax, NIS and all kinds of paperwork. The new management body is not a firm but a not-for-profit association. We don't want to have employees, but do want to be fair to post holders. The sums are small (£300 down to £40). We don't want to run into tax avoidance problems but would like to simplify the whole issue. Has anyone found a suitable system / form of words / legal limit that helps? These HMRC postings don't bode well.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/nimmanual/nim02205.htm http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gift_aid/rules/vol-expenses.htmPaul
