Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 section 320

Limited exemption for computer equipment

Section 320 provides a limited tax exemption for computer equipment that an employer makes available to employees or members of their families or households.

• The exemption applies only where the employer loans or makes computer equipment available for the employee's use — it does not apply where the equipment is given outright to the employee to keep.
• If the computer equipment is transferred to the employee permanently, the benefit remains taxable in the normal way.
• The exemption is not available where the arrangements to provide computer equipment have been deliberately restricted to favour directors or their families — but it is not lost simply because only directors happened to take up an offer that was genuinely open to all employees.
• A specific definition of "director" is included within this section because the provision sits outside the benefits code and therefore needs its own standalone definition.