How to award yourself a New Year pay rise

By John Husband

Are you getting the most out of your boss? You may not know it but you could be sitting on a goldmine of pre-tax company perks.

Many employers offer their staff a wide range benefits from childcare vouchers to cheap bikes and mobile phones. Here are some of the key things to ask for and what they could be worth.

MOBILE PHONES

Vodafone's Mobile Salary Saver can cut the cost of a mobile phone for you and save your boss money.

The scheme effectively lets you pay for the phone out of pre-tax income.

You sign up to a mobile phone contract with Vodafone for, say, £30 a month. This is paid for by your employer. In return you give up £30 a month of your pay before tax and National Insurance.

You save £9.90 a month that you would have had deducted - that's £118.80 a year. Your boss saves £3.30 a month employers' National Insurance he'd have paid on that - so he's quids in, too.

Schemes such as this are called "salary sacrifice" and are used to fund a variety of perks. Jane Vivier works in Maidstone for Kent County Council. The 34-year-old says: "I had a Pay as You Go phone which was costing me at least £25 a month.

"My new one costs only £20 for which I get 200 minutes a month and 250 free text messages.

"And I no longer need my land line which saves me another £14 monthly rental."

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