The information in this article will help you as an administrator to better understand the tax law context and background and to set up the system in a compliant manner.
Note: become.1 does not provide tax advice – the information provided serves as an indication of the proper provision of employee benefits and should be explicitly discussed with your own tax advisor so that any risks can be eliminated in advance.
The following applies in principle:
All Flex Module allowances (with the exception of the Meals Module under certain conditions) must be paid in addition to the wages owed anyway. This condition is only met if
- the benefit is not offset against the entitlement to wages,
- the entitlement to wages is not reduced in favour of the benefit,
- the benefit earmarked for a specific use or purpose is not granted in place of an already agreed future increase in salary and
- the salary is not increased if the benefit is cancelled
- is not increased if the benefit is cancelled
Meals (digital meals allowance)
According to the BMF letter dated 18 January 2019, a simplification rule can be applied and up to 15 meal allowances per month can be received for full-time employees who work remotely, permanently at their 1st permanent establishment and not regularly away from home (more on this in the section on away-from-home activities).
Employees in part-time employment:
Daily meal allowances are also to be recognised at the applicable official non-cash benefit value if they are paid to employees who work from a home office or do not work more than six hours a day, even if the company’s working time regulations do not provide for corresponding rest breaks.
If a part-time employee does not work five days a week, this must also be taken into account when calculating the number of meal allowances.
Away-from-home work (expenses):
Meal allowances may only be reimbursed to employees who work away from home on an average of less than three working days per calendar month. become.1 is happy to provide a dataset with information on historical allowances in order to cross-check sick days and holidays.
Longer-term away-from-home work at the same place of work:
If employees carry out a longer-term professional away-from-home activity at the same place of work, meal vouchers issued to these employees after three months are also tax-privileged. (In accordance with H 8.1 paragraph 7)
Legal basis
R 8.1 paragraph 7 number 4 letter a sentences 3 and 4 LStR:
In order to fulfil the requirements of double letter bb, the employer must determine the days of absence for each employee, e.g. due to work away from home, holiday or illness, and reclaim the meal vouchers issued for these days or reduce the number of meal vouchers to be issued in the following month by the number of days of absence.
The obligation to determine the days of absence and to adjust the number of meal vouchers in the following month does not apply to employees who work away from home on an average of no more than three working days per calendar month in a calendar year if none of these employees receives more than 15 meal vouchers in a calendar month.