The Fiscal Code provides for a variety of extra-salary benefits that employers can grant to employees to motivate and retain them.
The most important of these benefits, particularly because of the tax advantages they offer, are the following:
Meal voucher
Meal vouchers are vouchers used as a payment instrument for food, essentially representing an individual food allowance.
According to the legislation in force at the moment, the nominal value of a meal voucher is between 9.57 lei and 40 lei.
Meal vouchers can only be granted for the basic function, corresponding to the number of days actually worked by the employee during the month.
For meal vouchers, the employee will pay 10% of the monthly value, health insurance contribution and 10% of the monthly value, income tax (e.g. the employee receives the vouchers for March – 21 working days x 40 purchases = 840 purchases; in the payment declaration, the amount of 160 lei will be deducted from the net salary, health insurance and income tax equivalent).
Gift voucher
According to the provisions of Article 76(4) of Law 227/2015 on the Fiscal Code, gift vouchers granted to employees, as well as those offered for the benefit of their minor children, on the occasion of Easter, June 1, Christmas and similar holidays of other religious religions. Gifts, as well as gift vouchers, offered to female employees on the occasion of 8 March are not taxable to the extent that their value per individual, on each of the above occasions, does not exceed 300 lei. No social security contributions are withheld.
If the limit of 300 lei/person is exceeded when gift vouchers are granted on the occasion of an event, all social contributions and income tax are levied on the amount exceeding this limit.