The term Corporate Welfare refers to all contractual or one-sided initiatives by the employer aimed at increasing the well-being of the worker and his family through a different distribution of pay, which may consist either in refund benefits or in the direct provision of services, or in a mix of the two solutions.

The Welfare services offered are as follows:

  • Health care
  • Family and Education (Kindergarten – School – University – Summer and After School Camps – Books and Educational Material)
  • Family and Home Care
  • Local Public Transport
  • Wellness, Culture and Health (Travel – Sports Activities – Cinema and Theatre – Baby Sitting – Wellness and Spa Centres)
  • Supplementary Pension
  • Purchase and shopping

The Welfare Program provides access to self-managed coverage from the Previdir Assistance Fund for predetermined benefits and guarantees. This will make it possible to have extra insurance coverage for:

  • Clinical analysis
  • Dental care
  • Physiotherapy care
  • Orthodontic care
  • Contact lenses
  • Lenses and eyeglasses
  • Medicines
  • Homeopathic medicines
  • Parapharmaceuticals
  • Shelter
  • Specialist visits

  • Recipients

Previdir provides corporate WELFARE plans for employee generality or categories of employees, to directors of companies that receive compensation comparable to those of ex-art employee work. 50, letter c-bis of the TUIR, and to their households

An essential requirement for the non-taxability of the sums allocated to a Welfare Plan is their allocation to the generality of the company population or to homogeneous categories of employees. It is therefore excluded from the purpose of the Welfare the creation of plans ad personam.

Therefore, any sum allocated to person is dependent income (see Circ. # 326/E/97, par. 2.2.6).

In response to a question raised by a hotel company, the Revenue Agency clarified that the subsidised tax regime provided for by art. 51 of the TUIR may also be applied to employees and interns as they still have income from employees (or assimilated).

  • Benefits for Companies and Employees

The benefits – for business and employees – resulting from the introduction of a welfare plan can be substantially grouped into 3 macrocategories:

  1. Optimizing the tax benefit for the company, according to the current regulations and, in particular, by articles 51 and 100 TUIR
  2. Increased purchasing power for the employee: taxed and decontributed benefits but also discounts, promotions, conventions, goods and services with exclusive conditions
  3. Increased corporate well-being: improved business climate, decreased turnover and absenteeism, increased attraction and retention for the company.

A company that wants to introduce a welfare plan for its workers is faced with the choice on sources of funding. In particular, you may decide to finance a plan by choosing from one of the following modes:

  • DIRECT OR ON-TOP FINANCE:

An investment of the company that grants additional sums (so-called “on-top”) compared to ordinary pay and any other premiums. It consists of the establishment of a social award which is provided only in welfare services, possibly providing criteria for dispensing or quantifying the premium related to corporate and/or individual performance. Again, the premium can be paid to the entire company population or to one or more homogeneous categories of employees.

Such a funded Welfare Plan can be:

  1. Unregulated (pure liberality);
  2. Regulation formally validated by the board by the company (unilateral)
  3. Expected by company or territorial contract (bilateral)

Only the commitment expressed by the company through a signed regulation or a contract allows the use of both the former services. Art. 51 of both the services mentioned in Article 100 of the T.U.I.R. 5 per 1000 of staff expenses. Otherwise, the above deductibility limit for ex services is applicable (Art. 100).

  • PDR CONVERSION:

This is the conversion of the Production Award (or Result) or the Enterprise Earnings Participation Award in welfare services, within the limits and according to the constraints provided by the Stability Law 2016, subsequently updated by the Stability Act 2017. The award is expressed by a bilateral report (union agreement) or formalised through second-level bargaining with trade union representatives. The way in which the award is paid and converted is defined between the parties (the choice relating to the share of the premium to be received in welfare, within the limits of the law, is typically left to the employee). The contracting of the prize allows to activate, in addition to the Services Art. 51, also the use of the services indicated in Article 100 of the T.U.I.R., which are not subject to the deductibility limit of 5 per 1000 of staff expenditure; In addition, with such a funded plan, the sums paid for supplementary pension forms and supplementary health care do not contribute to the statutory deductible limits for these services.

When the conditions provided by the Law occur, in the event of the disbursement of monetary sums, the Stability Act provides for the application of a replacement tax of the IRPEF of a rate of 10%. The contribution charges remain in the hands of the company and the employee for their shares of competence (about 28% and 9% respectively), making the welfare choice relatively more cost-effective than the monetary provision.

SME registered with Confindustria have the opportunity to structure taxable PDR (and therefore convertible to welfare within the limits of Law 208/2015) in the absence of RSU under the Agreement signed at national level on 14 July 2016 CGIL CISL UIL and Confindustria.

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