Subscriptions with News Providers

The company has set up a couple of corporate accounts with a number of news providers. Some contracts are for newspapers such as The Times and The Economist that are delivered to the office and available to all employees. Others, like the Financial Times or specific industry journals, provide online access that is restricted to a set number of users, so digital IDs are issued and allocated to selected staff members (this would generally be available to a senior staff member or corporate communication team). The company arranges and pays for these news subscriptions as they are necessary for some of the departments which report and provide updates to the rest of the business, but I wonder if any of the above would be subject to PAYE and NIC?

Hi JPC,
It needs to be determined whether access to these publications (both physical and virtual) is required for work purposes.
If the access is for work purposes, then it would not be considered a reportable benefit in kind subject to tax and NIC.
If the access is not required for work purposes, and therefore provided only for private personal use, then this would be considered a benefit in kind.  
The charge to tax would be based on the cost to the employer to provide the access, divided by the number of people who are given access, irrespective of whether all make use of the access.
As the employer has entered into the contract with the provider of the access, this benefit would be subject to Class 1A NIC payable only by the employer.
Thank you. 

Thank you for the reply. Based on the information given, would I be correct to say that providing subscriptions to newsfeeds, newspapers/journals or online access to news/publications are provided and paid for by the employer and are used for work purposes, the following treatment/tax, National Insurance and reporting obligations would not apply: https://www.gov.uk/expenses-benefits-subscriptions-professional-fees even though, employees are given individual login details or provided with a copy of newspaper/journal each. Best regards JPC

Hi JPC,

It is only where all of the conditions listed below apply that you would not have to report anything to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) or pay tax and National Insurance :
- you (the employer)  pay the organisation yourself directly or if your employee pays the fee or subscription and you pay them back
- the organisation is on ‘list 3’, HMRC’s list of approved professional bodies
- you have exemptions (these have replaced dispensations) covering your fees and subscriptionsy.                                                                      
If all 3 conditions do not apply, please refer back to our reply to your original question.

Thank you.