Christmas bonuses for employees
November 20, 2018
According to the Christmas time, more and more employers decide to give their employees a various type of bonuses for Christmas. We can usually distinguish vouchers, packages or simply money. The more types of those bonuses, the more questions about taxations and contributions.
All those benefits which should help employees, are paid from unions funds or from Social Benefits Fund. They can be also funded from company money. As far as a Social Fund is concerned, those are money collected on a separete bank account and dedicated for supporting employees. This type of fund is obligatory for self-government and budgetary units, and for employers who on the date 1st January of particular year have minimum 50 employees.
Among the christmas extras, we can distinguish bonuses that according to the fact that can be exchanged for commodities or services, in the past were treated as a things and were released from taxation in the amount till 380PLN in the tax year, if of course they were funded from ZFŚS or from unions funds. In 2004 this was changed and bonuses started to be not treated as a benefits in kind, so the employers are obliged to pay a taxes for them. In the case of this change, bonuses do not have to be paid from ZFŚS funds or unions funds. If bonuses will be paid from company’s working capital, all employees can get them in the same amount.
Bonuses are the employee’s income in the month of receiving them. To the value of the received bonuses has to be paid tax, according to the income.
Contributions of christmas bonuses are dependent on the source of their financing. That’s why extras from ZFŚS are not contributed but those from the company’s working capital are the basis for the health and social security. Bonuses are free form contributions if they are financed from ZFŚS and if they consitute a social assistance.
Bonuses can be given also to mandatories. In this case, mandatories are treated in the same way as employees.
Important is that all benefits that employee’s will receive, undergo fully to bailiff executions. Those type of benefits are not treated as a remuneration, so in the case of executions there are not used any deductions according to the Labor Code.
