Expenses and benefits: relocation costs
What you do not have to report
Some relocation costs up to 拢8,000 are exempt from reporting and paying tax and National Insurance. These are called 鈥榪ualifying鈥� costs and include:
- the costs of buying or selling a home
- moving costs
- buying certain things for a new home
- bridging loans
These are only qualifying costs when:
- a new employee is moving area to start a job with you
- an existing employee is changing their place of work within your organisation
- the employee鈥檚 new home is reasonably close to the workplace and their old home is not
- the costs are paid before the end of the tax year that鈥檚 after the one in which the employee started their job
For qualifying costs over 拢8,000, you may have to report and pay tax and National Insurance.
Bridging loans
For a bridging loan to count as a qualifying cost:
- your employee (or members of their family) must sell their old home and buy a new one
- it must be needed to bridge the gap between buying the new house and getting the money from their sale of the old one
- it must be used only to buy the new house or pay off loans relating to the old home
- it cannot be for more than the market value of the old home at the time the new home is bought