Readers’ forum: In what year is a redundancy payment taxed?

I act for a medium sized company which is going through some difficult times and will have to make some workers redundant in the near future.

Over and above statutory redundance pay it is planning only to make payments in lieu of notice. It accepts that under the new 2018 rules such payments are taxable in full and that employees don’t benefit from the £30 000 exemption.

The question concerns timing. Quite a few of the employees concerned will be earning just under £50 000 and therefore (to the best of the company’s knowledge) they are unlikely to be subject to the high income child benefit (HICB) charge this year. However if the three months’ pay in lieu of notice is taxable in 2023-24 that is likely to bring them into the HICB charge and clearly the company doesn’t want that to be a knock on effect of...