Dan Neidle

Hi. Exactly what this weird payment is doesn't actually matter. Any payment from your employer is going to be "earnings" and fully taxable, whether it's ex gratia or not. Think about it this way: otherwise many employers would knock £30k off wages and pay £30k "ex gratia", saving large amounts of tax. That doesn't and can't happen.

Hello moderator. Bit odd that you're not deleting a clearly incorrect posting by "HMRC Admin 10". Could really get taxpayers into trouble.

Hello. The HMRC representative has misunderstood what is going on. The £30k exemption is for ex gratia payments *on termination*. These are just weird, supposedly ex-gratia, payments during an industrial dispute. There is no termination, and the £30k exemption is irrelevant. So please ignore it.