In this period of strong increases – for raw materials, energy and fuels – a new facility is starting.
It is about the petrol bonus, or more precisely fuel bonus, illustrated by the circular 27 / E of the Revenue Agency, dated 14 July. And then appeared in the press release published on the Agency’s website the following day, Friday 15 July.
Let’s find out what petrol vouchers are, who they are entitled to and what their maximum value is.
The recipients of the petrol bonus
Gasoline bonuses will be able to be paid out by private sector employers to their employees by the end of 2022. The measure aims to counter, as we said, the increases in fuel.
The circular specifies the categories of workers who are entitled to the benefit. Including “even those who do not carry out a commercial activity and self-employed workers, as long as they have their own employees”.
On the contrary, they are “excluded from the private sector and, consequently, from the concession in question, the public administrations”.
It is also specified that access to the contribution is also possible for employees of professional firms.
The disbursement of petrol bonuses
The petrol vouchers will be issued only for the tax period 2022, and can have a maximum value of 200 euros for each employee.
Furthermore, “the facilitating provision in question does not expressly make any distinctions and does not set any limits for admission to the benefit”.
The petrol bonuses are not taxed, do not contribute to the formation of income and are fully deductible from business income.
But how are the fuel bonuses awarded? They can be paid directly by the employer “immediately, in compliance with the conditions and limits provided by law, even ad personam and without the need for prior contractual agreements, provided that they are not paid in place of the performance bonuses”.
In this specific case, disbursement must take place in the current year and in compliance with company or territorial contracts, in compliance with the specific regulations envisaged for performance bonuses.
Untaxed bonuses
It was mentioned that petrol bonuses are not taxed.
The employer can deduct the sum from the business income, which must be counted separately from any other benefits paid.
This means that the goods and services provided in the tax period 2022 by the employer to each employee can reach a value of 200 euros for one or more petrol vouchers and a value of 258.23 euros for all other goods. and services (including any additional petrol vouchers).
“If the value of the goods and services provided overall in the tax period exceeds the aforementioned limit of € 258.23, it contributes entirely to forming the income”.
Two examples appear in the circular to clarify the point.
“In the event that an employee benefits, in the tax year 2022, petrol vouchers for 100 euros and other benefits (other than petrol vouchers) for a value equal to 300 euros, the latter sum will be fully subject to ordinary taxation.
On the other hand, if the value of the petrol vouchers is equal to 250 euros and that of the other benefits is equal to 200 euros, the entire sum of 450 euros does not contribute to the formation of the employee’s income, since the relative excess of 50 euros to the petrol vouchers it is included in the still large amount of the other benefits referred to in article 51, paragraph 3, of the TUIR “.
What is included in the petrol bonus
For simplicity they are called “petrol bonuses”. But the precise wording, we said, is “fuel vouchers”, as it appears in the circular and in the explanatory note.
In fact, we always read in the circular of the Revenue Agency, “the petrol vouchers in question are payments paid by private employers to their employees for the supply of automotive fuel (such as petrol, diesel, LPG and methane).
Given the rationale of the law, attributable, as mentioned, to the will of the legislator to compensate employees of private employers for the higher costs incurred in the context of expensive fuel, it is believed that the disbursement of vouchers or similar securities for the recharging of electric vehicles must be included in the benefit in questionalso in order not to create unjustified disparities in treatment between different types of vehicles. “
After the discount, the bonus
The petrol bonus is added to the discount of 30 cents per liter on fuel.
Which, initially planned only until April 30, in recent weeks has been extended until next August 2.