The draft fiscal and customs policy for the coming year provides for the inclusion of a rule expressly ensuring the right of the economic agent to benefit from deductions for payments made to or for the benefit of the employees, from which salary taxes have been withheld. The Ministry of Finance said that the introduction of this norm will positively impact the expenses related to food and organized transport.
The bill, which was submitted to public consultations, addresses the frequent practice of employee stimulation, by the employer, through different benefits, such as national holiday allowances, birthday payments, gym subscriptions, etc., for which the economic agent withholds all salary taxes. However, when tax control takes place, disagreements between taxpayers and tax inspectors occur regarding the qualification of said payments as ordinary and necessary expenses. In particular, inspectors question the right to deduct these expenses for fiscal purposes when calculating the economic agent's income tax.
According to the Ministry of Finance, from an economic point of view, these expenses, even though their legal status does no qualify them as salaries, are in fact salary expenses used to stimulate the employees. As these payments are taxed at the employee level with all salary taxes, it is proposed that they are deductible for the economic agent in order to avoid double taxation and increase the certainty of the tax legislation.
Another provision concerns the introduction of a rule expressly stipulating that it is possible to deduct the expenses incurred by the beneficiaries of works for the transport and nourishment of day labourers as established by the government, as well as the non-taxation of these amounts at the level of daily workers. This amendment is required in order to guarantee similar facilities in the case of day labourers, since the legislation in force treats the notion of day labourer different than the notion of employee.
