The Easter holiday brings good news for employers in Romania. They can take advantage of this festive time of the year by granting their employees a special bonus, under very favourable conditions. Don’t miss out on a good opportunity to financially motivate your staff!
EASTER BONUS IN ROMANIA: THE GRANTING CONDITION
For employers in Romania, Easter comes each year with the legal opportunity to grant a special bonus to all employees, totally exempted from taxes and social contributions. The amount of the bonus can go up to 150 lei (33 €) for each employee and for each child of the employee. This bonus is completely exempted of income tax and social contributions. Actually, the amount of 150 lei is absolutely tax free.
If the amounts are higher than this limit, what is over 150 lei is submitted to income tax and social contributions. A solution to pay only tax on income and be exempted of social contributions is to grant gift vouchers (“tichete cadou” in Romanian). Statistics show that more and more companies choose to motivate their employees by the means of gift vouchers, this market having grown by 27 % during last year alone (2016).
EXAMPLE OF A FAMILY WORKING FOR THE SAME EMPLOYER
If we consider the case of a family working for the same employer, things look pretty good at Easter. Both adults can each receive the amount of 150 lei, so 300 lei per family. Moreover, if they have, let’s say, 2 children, each of the parent can get 2*150 lei = 300lei. Let’s make the addition now, for this family:
150 lei (wife) + 150 lei (husband) + 300 lei (mother of 2 children) + 300 lei (father of 2 children) = 900 lei, totally free of taxes. Not too bad for an Easter bonus if you ask me!
The other opportunities provided by the Fiscal Code to grant tax exempted bonuses of 150 lei are Christmas, for employees and also for their children, the same rule as for Easter, Mother’s Day – March 8th (only for female employees) and Child’s Day – June the 1st (for the employees who have children).
