Should I snitch on cashback 'womble'?

John_Pierpoint

mandrossian wrote: »

This is not a question of morality, its a question of legality. Whether or not the bosses are ok with the cashback or not is up to them, but taking the cashback is clearly a taxable benefit. The right course of action is to alert your colleague of this so that they can make the necessary arrangements for their tax return. If they do not then you have an obligation as a UK citizen to report them to HMRC.

Since when has a politician driven organisation prepared to do sweetheart deals with the likes of Vodafone, become the fountain head of morality ?

At least when the universal church of Rome set the rural business rate they only took 10%, VAT alone is now 20%.

minicooper272

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Re the question of paying tax on the income from the cashback, I assume that means that all those mentioning that declare their cashback earnings and similar on a tax return and pay tax on it?
.

If I earn cashback, then I don't need to declare tax on it - at the end of the day, it's not an income for me, it's a discount on a product I would have bought anyway, paid for with money that I have already paid tax on...

In this case however, the cashback isn't a discount on something for this woman, it is an additional income, and were HMRC to investigate, there is a possibility they would view it as a taxable income.

JeremyCH

This is quite straight forward, this is money that the firm should be benefitting from and not your colleague. As an employer, if I found something like this was going on I'd be looking at a Gross Misconduct disciplinary situation; it is tantamount to theft.

I would suggest that you do one of two things. Either 'suggest' to your employers that you've found a wonderful way of saving them money and let them tell your colleague to start using this apparoach or tell your colleague to make the suggestion herself, thus brownie points all round.

You might alos point out to her that if she's boasting about it then there's a good cahnce that the powers that be will hear of it and then she will be dropped in it from a very large height and could well lose her job. At a slight stretch she could find herself being interviewed by the Police on charges of either theft or fraud.

natlie

I have done this with things like trainline, but I use my own debit card to make the booking not a company card, its small amounts of money but I hadn't really thought about it until now?

John_Pierpoint

There has always been a discussion amongst chartered accountants about finding someone in an organisation who is working the system to their advantage.

Do you want them inside or outside the tent.

Do you promote them for initiative or sack them for fraud (only you cannot say that or you might be guilty of obstructing the police or libelling the employee).

So sack one of your best employees and they might well end up performing for a competitor.

BobQ

My view is that if the employer has asked her to do this its part of her job. So if they want the benefit of the transactional discounts they should supply her with a corporate card to use. If they have and she chooses to use her own to pocket the "profit" then she should be told to use the corporate card. If they do not supply a corporate card how else can she do this but to use her own card and take the "profit"?

On a smaller scale when I do air travel my employer buys the ticket directly and does not object to me collecting the frequent flyer points but bans me from using them so I just collect them (till I leave). But I am expected to settle the bills for other expenses and claim them back. What benefits I get from this is in my opinion mine to keep, unless the employer gives me a corporate card to use.

BobQ

The issue of taxability is commented upon here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/creditcards/10027264/Will-I-have-to-pay-tax-on-credit-card-cashback.html

which quotes the HMRC on the matter of cash back credit cards. HMRC website explains that these do not constitute annual payments than need to be declared.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/saimmanual/SAIM8050.htm

But the fact that she is spending money on behalf of the company rather than as a personal business expense may make this more of a problem for her.

KDH001

If the company are not against it which is very doubtful to say the least, I would think the last thing she will have done is declare this to the HMRC as additional income, which is a legal requirement. Point out that tax avoidance has stiff penalties. Since she is benefitting from company business, tax is indeed liable.

Kinkajou

Firstly I must say that I'm not approaching this from a legal perspective. I think informing on a colleague for having the initiative to use a cashback site when spending on behalf of the company is petty.

For me, the cashback queen here in my mind is only guilty of bragging and showing off, thus initiating jealously in those who spend more time watching what others are achieving, and not enough time thinking about what they should be achieving.

There are no losers here. The hotel gets their sale, the cashback site gets their cut, the enterprising employee gets a boost and her employer loses nothing. What's there to snitch on?

John_Pierpoint

Employees need to remember in which part of the "master and servant" relationship they are.