EIM26252 - The benefits code: beneficial loans: calculating the cash equivalent: interest paid half yearly

Loan agreements often provide for interest to be paid half-yearly, for example, on 1 June and 1 December each year. Because of this, it sometimes happens that the first interest payment does not fall due until after the end of the income tax year in which the loan is obtained. This does not mean that no interest is payable for that year. Interest is payable for that year and will be paid in the following year. The appropriate proportion of it should be taken when it has been paid.

See the example at EIM26253.

The difference between the interest paid in the year and the interest paid for the year will not usually be important except where the loan is taken out or repaid part way through a year. In most cases you can treat the interest paid in the year as the amount to be taken into account under EIM26250 (see example at EIM26312). Interest paid for the year need only be calculated where

• the interest paid in the year is significantly less than the interest paid for the year (as in the example at EIM26253), or
• the employee specifically asks for this.