Measure
The government will introduce legislation to ensure that employer payments of Certificate of Sponsorship fees and Immigration Skills Charges – costs employers are required to incur when sponsoring workers under the Skilled Worker route – are not treated as taxable benefits in kind for their employees.
Employers who sponsor workers under the Skilled Worker route and the employees they sponsor.
The legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2026/27 and will have effect in relation to payments made on or after 28 October 2026.
Employers will welcome this clarification regarding the treatment of costs they are obliged to incur in connection with bringing workers to the UK. Many employers will already have regarded these charges as employer costs that should not give rise to a taxable benefit in kind, so the introduction of a specific exemption is a welcome and pragmatic development. However, as the legislation will only cover payments made from Budget Day onwards, it remains to be seen how HMRC intend to treat costs that were incurred before that date. Another open question is whether HMRC intend to argue that other employer costs should be treated as taxable benefits in the absence of a specific exemption.