Nowadays the non-assessable gas voucher in many companies has established itself as an improved remuneration.
The company is allowed to give out on a monthly basis non-assessable gas vouchers to its employees as payments in kind.
The value of the gas voucher is limited to EUR 44.00. As the name already tells no taxes are raised.
The tax and revenue office stipulates that gas vouchers are not allowed to have cash value printed on it. Solely the amount of liters and the gas type may be indicated. When giving the gas voucher to the employee the employer has to take care that this is no payment instrument. Petrol cards of the company or cash with later confirmation that it is paid out of the company’s money box is not accepted by the tax and revenue office as well. The same applies for blank vouchers.
It is the tax and revenue office’s opinion that when giving out blank vouchers personal details will be filled in retroactive to the refueling. Therefore the chief executive is supposed to fill out the vouchers before printing them out. This prevents the tax and revenue office from alleging financial fraud. In simple terms this means that the employee does not have anything to do with the gas voucher (e.g. paying in cash at the gas station and charging the employer later).
Only if the company maintains to these provisions, the voucher indeed is released from taxes. As there are several more payments in kind (e.g. job-tickets or preferential company accommodation), companies should watch the limit of EUR 44.00 for giving out vouchers.
Since the tax-deductible amount for daily travelers has been suppressed, the non-assessable gas voucher has been a good opportunity to adjust the financial losses for daily travelers. But even with the re-launch of the tax-deductible amount for daily travelers the gas voucher still remains a sensible permission of payments in kind for the employer as well as for the employee as the gas voucher is not only tax-free but also free of social security tax.