How Flexible benefits work: legal aspects, tax deductions, and the advantages for those who choose Gift Cards to disburse fringe benefits.

Fringe Benefits 2023: what are they and what Article 51 of the TUIR says.

Fringe benefits, or flexible benefits, are the set of goods, services or benefits employers make available to employees as a form of non-monetized compensation included on one’s pay slip. The objective is to boost productivity and improve workers’ quality of life, thus increasing their purchasing power. 

This form of remuneration is part of the employee benefits plan and is governed by Article 51 of TUIR and includes several advantages, including:

• company cars
• cellular telephones
• laptop computers or tablets
• meal vouchers
• gift cards
• lodgings
• life insurance policies
• educational and instructional services
• staff canteen
• children’s play areas
• winter and summer sports centers
• scholarships
• transfer of company products at favorable or free terms
• below market rate loans to employees
• supplementary social contributions such as pension funds

Fringe benefits, or flexible benefits, are the set of goods, services or benefits employers make available to employees as a form of non Paragraph 2 of Article 51 of TUIR specify that in INPS and INAIL social security and welfare contributions are exempt from taxation, meaning those paid by both the employer and the employee, health services contributions paid up to a maximum amount of €3,615.20 yearly, and shared employee transport services from home to the work place. 
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Paragraph 3 of Article 51 of TUIR dictates the normal values of Fringe Benefits and specifies that workers can make use of goods or services provided by the company with aspending limit of €258.23. Any amount exceeding this limit forms part of the employee’s income and is thus subject to taxation. 
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Paragraph 4 of Article 51 of TUIR, on the other hand, regulates the rules needed to determine conventional values of certain goods and services, such as vehicles and buildings employers provide for employee use. -monetized compensation included on one’s pay slip. The objective is to boost productivity and improve workers’ quality of life, thus increasing their purchasing power. 

Detailed legislation relating to Fringe Benefits taxation provides for:

• tax exemption for meal vouchers upto €5.29 per day.
• for vehicles provided for various uses, the taxation is equal to 25% of the kilometric cost, determined in accordance with the ACI tables, using an established distance of 15,000kilometers.This percentage is increased to 30 per cent for vehicles with carbon dioxide emission values greater than 60 g/km but not exceeding 160 g/km. Where the emission values of the vehicles are higher than 160 g/km but not 190 g/km, the percentage is increased to 40 per cent for the year 2020 and to 50 per cent from the year 2021. For vehicles with carbon dioxide emission values exceeding190 g/km, the percentage is 50% for the year 2020 and 60% from the year 2021.
• in the case of loans, 50 per cent of the difference between the amount of interest calculated at the official discount rate in force at the end of each year and the amount of interest calculated at the rate applied to the same
• For buildings leased, rented or leased on a gratuitous basis, the difference between the cadastral rent of the building increased by all the expenses pertaining to the building, including utilities not charged to the user, and the amount paid for the use of the building is taken. For buildings granted in connection with the obligation to stay in the dwelling itself, 30 per cent of this difference is taken. For buildings that do not have to be entered in the land register, the difference between the value of the rent determined under a tied regime or, failing that determined under a free market regime, and the amount paid for the use of the building is taken for.