You may have received Christmas vouchers from your businesses. To encourage gifts or vouchers, the social security tax exemption ceiling has even doubled this year. Lawyer Roland Perez specified the conditions to benefit from it, Saturday morning on Europe 1.
“Like any gift that one makes, nothing is obligatory, that is to say that no collective agreement or any employment contract, or even a use in the profession, must have foreseen it for that the social exemption works.
Another condition and not the least, it is necessary that all employees, at least those falling within the same category, benefit from the same largesse. So there must be no discrimination between employees, or that you consider that one or more employees do not deserve a gift by their attitudes, which is not legally possible. Unless it is of course a matter of giving a gift on the occasion of a wedding or a birth.
What is the maximum amount of the financial gift that the employer can make to benefit from the social exemption?
They must be made in the form of vouchers or gift certificates. As such, the employer is exempt from social security contributions and the employee from all income tax. The amount is capped at 5% of the monthly social security ceiling set each year, which would amount to receiving a maximum of € 171 per employee. But to alleviate the difficulties related to the Covid, the ceiling has been doubled to reach 343 euros per employee and per child of the employee under 16 years old.
This measure was taken on an exceptional basis to support consumption in shops. To benefit from it, the vouchers must be handed in by December 31, 2020 at the latest and must be linked to Christmas.
Is this different from purchasing power bonuses that can be given by the employer to employees?
Yes, this exceptional bonus is also exempt from all contributions and contributions up to the limit of 1,000 euros per employee, without his needing to justify a profit-sharing agreement in the company, and 2,000 € otherwise. “
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