I did get Tax Relief on my Bond.
HOWEVER, this was done on the 1st year of SA. On leaving the company I asked firstly for the bond amount to be deducted from my remaining salary - savings for me and the company (NI). TFD came the reply.
So next I demanded a VAT receipt for the sum. If you research the rules for VAT, for a VAT registered company there are only specific things they charge for that are exempt - and bonds aren't one of them. So they were obliged to:
1. Provide me with a VAT receipt for "something" - they called it "New Hire Training".
2. Pay 17.5% of the Bond to the VAT man.
I then just entered the bond amount into the "Job Expense" box of the SA form. The nice Taxman sent me 40% of the amount as a cheque (since my PAYE was out by this amount), and never questioned the figure etc.
This was back in 1996 - the system is "self assessment", and I felt the rules could be interepreted to allow this relief. Had the taxman challenged me, with the reciept I felt there was no way he could prosecute - just disagree and "reassess" me.
NoD