18 June 2019 
Caroline Jones, Employment tax director
The Department for Transport has published its new Cycle to work Scheme guidance, ‘Moving Britain Ahead’. This guidance provides details of how the scheme operates, the alternatives to salary sacrifice and what is required (or not) in terms of a licence from the Financial Conduct Authority.
It is important thing to note, if you are using salary sacrifice, that in order to meet the criteria for the scheme to be tax and NIC free the opportunity to loan a bike must be made available to all staff. This means that for those staff who wish to participate in cycle to work but who cannot enter into a salary sacrifice arrangement alternative arrangements must be made to loan them a bike. Deducting payments from net pay is not an alternative and would result in the salary sacrifice scheme being ineffective for tax and NIC purposes.
