Cycle-to-work salary sacrifice benefits both the employer and the employee.
Employers save on the employer National Insurance Contributions (13.8% of the cycle-to-work package value) and the Apprenticeship Levy (0.5% of the cycle-to-work package value).
By participating in the cycle-to-work scheme, an employee has the cost the cycle-to-work package (bike + equipment + services) deducted from their gross salary via salary sacrifice. This effectively reduces their taxable income by the cycle-to-work package value and generates employee income tax and employee National Insurance (NI) contribution savings.
In contrast, when an employee buys a bike from a retailer, they are spending from their take-home money pool (after paying tax on 100% of their gross salary), and therefore don´t make any tax savings.