BOOK REVIEW EMPLOYEE BENEFITS AND EXPENSES Two Volumes: Volume 1: Principles & A-Z Volume 2: Major Benefits 2nd edition By Ray Chidell and Dave Jennings CLARITAX BOOKS LTD/MAZARS ISBNs: Volume 1: 978 1 90854 562 6 Volume 2: 978 1 90854 563 3 www.claritaxbooks.com A CLEAR TWO VOLUME EXPLANATION OF THE RULES ON EMPLOYEE BENEFITS AND EXPENSES IN AN EASY-TO-READ FORMAT FOR ADVISERS An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers Ray Chidell and Dave Jennings have compiled an excellent two volume work on employee benefits and expenses which offers user-friendly and practical guidance to reflect the rapidly-changing tax rules. They review the general underlying principles in the first volume as an A-Z of benefits and expenses from page 110 in chapter 7 starting with ‘accommodation, supplies and services’ and ending with ‘workplace nurseries’. Then, in the second volume, they cover the major benefits ‘in kind’, including a detailed chapter on company cars which will be of considerable interest to many. Chidell and Jennings have also added extended coverage of PAYE compliance reviews and a new chapter on penalties for this splendid second edition. A general index can be found at the back of volume two together with the list of cases and statutes and 11 appendices. Therefore, if you act as a tax specialist, either as a tax accountant or a lawyer/counsel advising on tax, you are probably more than familiar already with the ever-growing stable of books on tax advice from Claritax who play a leading role today in these specialist and very readable publications. If you have not, then, what a discovery is to be made! In the words of the publishers, Claritax Books complement ‘what is on offer from the larger tax publishers.’ And if you mark our words, these books – including this title -- contain the most accessible and certainly businesslike advice on tax you are likely to encounter. ‘Claritax’ is rather a good name for these concise and very handy volumes, for they really do clarify in plain, precise language all the pertinent information you’ll need to know across a range of highly specific areas in tax. ‘Typically,’ says Claritax, ‘our books cover niche topics in greater depth, or take a more practical approach to particular tax issues.’ And so it is with this latest Claritax title as a second edition in two volumes: “Employee Benefits and Expenses” from Ray Chidell and Dave Jennings. The first edition was published in June 2014 and, as the authors say, “the amount that has changed in relation to employee benefits and expenses since that time is extraordinary”. Well, we must be prepared for further changes since May 2015 as this work is relevant to all the 25 million employees in the United Kingdom at the present time. The law is stated as at 31st March 2015, reflecting the Budget of March 2015 and the first Finance Act of 2015. Since publication, the general election of 7th May 2015 took place and returned a Conservative government who will be delivering a second emergency Budget on 8th July 2015 so there could well be further imminent changes on the horizon.

• published: 19 May 2015
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