Does a staff mortgage affect Working Tax Credit?

stupot101

Hi,

I work for a bank (sorry!) and receive a benefit in kind, namely a preferential mortgage rate. My total mortgage is £81k, made up of £65k staff rate at 3% fixed, and £16k commercial rate currently at 4.4%. I'm currently on interest only.

Being totally broke at the minute, I used the HMRC's benefit calculator which said I'm entitled (or may be entitled) to £52 a week working tax credits. Part of the calculator mentioned "benefits in kind" such as company cars etc. But the calculator had no way of listing preferential mortgage rates.

Would a preferential staff rate affect working tax credits? If so, by much given my small mortgage?

Robbie64

It won't affect your WTC if it doesn't attract taxation. Benefits in kind for WTC are based on benefits that affect your PAYE coding.

Starrystarrynight

I was under the impression that a preferential loan does affect your tax code, the ones I have dealt with in the past certainly did. A rough way to work it out is to subtract your tax code from the standard one, then multiply by 10 and that should give you the assumed value of the benefit in kind. Eg, code of 500L
647 - 500 = 147 x 10 = £1470. I would've thought that amount would need to be declared as a benefit in kind. I'm sure someone else will be able to say for definite, though.