According to a legislative proposal tacitly adopted in the Senate, private employees could benefit from holiday vouchers of 1,450 lei per year from 2024 onwards from the money they owe in income tax.
In the scheme proposed by the initiators, employers would be mere intermediaries, obliged to submit to ANAF a list of employees who should receive the vouchers.
Thus, the legislative proposal on the amendment and completion of the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no. 8/2009 on the granting of holiday vouchers stipulates that private employers may request from the state, more precisely, from the county public finances, holiday vouchers for their employees, in the amount of 1,450 lei per employee.
We mention that the proposal is at the beginning of the legislative process, it will be adopted by the deputies (the decision-making body) and approved by the signature of the President of the State in order to be applied. As a time horizon, the signatory parliamentarians propose the application of the future law from January 2024.
According to the proposed document, parliamentarians have established that each employee in the private sector can receive holiday vouchers of 1,450 lei annually, but only from a single employer, to which he will submit a declaration on his own responsibility expressing his option to receive the vouchers on the respective employment contract.
We stress that the source of funding for these expenses is the income tax due by the employee. In practice, some categories of employees are excluded from the outset from the benefit of vouchers: those exempt from income tax.
Moreover, the MEPs propose to remove the ban that currently exists in the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE 8/2009 on the accumulation of vouchers with holiday bonuses or rest tickets – in the same tax year, employees will be able to receive both vouchers, bonuses and rest tickets, if applicable.
Thus, according to the proposal, employers will have to submit to ANAF the lists of employees and the option declarations, and it is quite clear from the proposal that these vouchers would be granted to all employees paying income tax, the employer being only an intermediary in obtaining vouchers for his employees.
The main reason why the MPs want to grant this benefit is not to encourage domestic tourism or to supplement the benefits for employees, but to encourage the conclusion of employment contracts and, thus, the payment of related tax gifts to the state.