Section 23: Employment income.

(1) "Employment income" means a payment or benefit arising from past. present or prospective employment, including but not restricted to the following payments or benefits— a) any salary, wages or other remuneration provided to the employee, including leave pay, overtime payments, commissions and bonuses; b) gifts received by an employee in the course of or by virtue of a past, present or future employment; c) unless another value is specified in subsection (2), the higher of the cost to the employer or the market value to the employee of any benefit provided by an employer to an employee by way of the transfer or use of property or the provision of services, whether or not the benefit may be converted to money's worth by the employee; d) any allowance provided by the employer for the benefit of an employee or in respect of any member of the employee's family, including any cost of living, subsistence, rent, medical, entertainment or travel allowance; e) any consideration provided by the employer in respect of the employees’ agreement to any conditions of employment or to any changes in the conditions of employment; f) any payment provided by the employer in respect of redundancy, any payment for loss of office or termination of the holding of an office or employment and any similar payment; g) any pension payments (other than pension payments described in paragraph (d) of section 31); h) any payments (other than payments described in paragraph (e) of section 31) provided as a supplement to a pension payment; i) the provision by the employer to an employee of the use, or the availability for use, of a motor vehicle wholly or partly for the private purposes of the employee; j) the provision by the employer of accommodation or housing; k) the reimbursement or discharge by an employer of the employee's utilities expenditure; l) the provision by an employer to an employee of a housekeeper, chauffeur. gardener or other domestic assistant; m) the provision by an employer to an employee of any meal, refreshment or entertainment; n) the waiver by an employer of an obligation of the employee to pay or repay an amount owing to the employer or to any other person; o) an amount which is credited to an employee in the books or in the name of the employer in circumstances in which the employee may draw sums on account of such amount or otherwise utilise such credit in any way; p) any money or asset withdrawn by a director not previously voted and taxed as employment income or a distribution and not otherwise standing to his credit in the books of the company; q) an amount contributed by the employer to a pension, superannuation, provident or similar fund for the benefit of the employee; and r) any other payment by the employer in discharge of the employee's pecuniary liabilities. (2) For the purpose of determining the amount included in employment income under subsection (1), the taxable value of the benefit, described in— a) paragraph (i), is the amount calculated in accordance with paragraph 1 of the Ninth Schedule. b) paragraph (j), is the market rent of the accommodation or housing reduced by any payment made by the employee for the benefit; c) paragraph (k), is the amount of the reimbursement or discharge; d) paragraph (1), is the total employment income paid to the domestic assistant in respect of services rendered to the employee reduced by any payment made by the employee for the benefit; e) paragraph (m), is the cost to the employer of providing the meal, refreshment or entertainment reduced by any consideration paid by the employee for it; and f) paragraph (n), is the amount of the payment or repayment waived. (3) Notwithstanding subsection (1), the following income is excluded from an employee's assessable income— a) the actual amount of an employee's medical expenses discharged or reimbursed by the employer; b) where— i. it is a condition of an employee’s employment that the employee serve the employer at locations specified by the employer; and ii. an employee maintains a household in his previous place of abode after moving at iii. the employer's request the value of accommodation provided to the employee; c) in the case of an employee not described in paragraph (b) who is required to change his place of abode at the request of his employer. the difference between the rental value of the employee's previous accommodation and the rental value of accommodation provided by the employer reduced by any contributions made by the employee towards the cost of accommodation; d) the reimbursement of expenditures incurred by an employee on behalf of the employer for which the employer would be entitled to a deduction under this Act if incurred directly; e) that portion of an allowance for which the employee has provided receipts or other proof of payment of expenses that, had they been incurred directly by the employer, would have been deductible by the employer under this Act; f) the cost incurred by the employer of any passage to or from Sierra Leone in respect of non-resident or temporarily resident employee’s first appointment or termination of such appointment, and in respect of a period of vacation leave after each complete year of service; g) any amount paid by the employer as a contribution to a complying retirement fund not exceeding the amount specified in subsection (1) of section 38; h) the lesser of – i. any redundancy pay or a payment for termination or loss of office or employment or similar type of payment; and ii. the amount specified in paragraph 2 of the Ninth Schedule; and i) a fringe benefit the value of which (after taking into account the frequency with which similar benefits are provided by the employer) is so small as to make accounting for it unreasonable or administratively impracticable. (4) For the purposes of this section, payments made or benefits provided by an employer include any made or provided by an associate of the employer or to an associate of the employee.