1. Child care vouchers –  if you have children attending a nursery or looked after by a professional childminder, your employer can join a Childcare voucher scheme. This allows for £55 of the weekly cost to be deducted free of tax and NI if you are a basic tax rate payer, or £28 if you are a higher rate tax payer.
2.  Pensions – if you pay into a work pension scheme, 20% tax is automatically deducted. For high rate tax payers, you can claim additional relief either by declaring it on your Self-Assessment or calling the taxman.
3.  Company cars – are a pain and the tax is huge BUT if you have a company van, the benefit in kind is capped at £3,000 so for a basic rate tax payer the cost of driving is only £600 or £1,200 for a higher rate payer.
4.  Professional membership fees – your membership to a recognised trade or professional body it is a deductible expense, but not for your hobbies.   
5.  Share incentive schemes – there are loads of schemes that allow either NI or Capital Gains Tax to be saved, you don’t have work for a listed company either.
6.  Giving your work colleagues a lift to work – if your employer encourages car pooling you can claim 5p a mile for the passenger without incurring any additional tax charge.
7.  Cycle to work – get your employer to provides a bike both for travel to work and play, it’s not considered as a benefit in kind.
8. Then after a time you can buy it off them at market value.
9.  Season ticket loans – your company can advance the cost of an annual season ticket up to £5,000, much cheaper than buying a ticket weekly.
10. From April 2014 this increases to £10,000 (not really sure if that’s a blessing?)
11. Electric Cars – from April 2015 there’s no benefit in kind.
12.  Working from home – it is becoming increasingly more common for staff to work from home. You can claim £4 a week allowance without having to produce receipts.

Any questions contact the author at niall@odfinancialservices.co.uk