Everything that you as an employer reimburse or provide to an employee is wages. Under the Expense Allowance Scheme (WKR), you as an employer may spend part of your taxable wages on untaxed allowances for your employees. This part is also called the free space: the lump sum WKR. You do not pay any payroll tax on this portion.
Level of free space
The amount of the free space depends on the total taxable wage. It is calculated using the wage bill of all your employees combined.
The free allowance in 2024 is 1.92% of the fiscal wage bill up to €400,000 and 1.18% on the wage bill above that.
Note that on anything you reimburse above that free allowance, you pay a final tax of 80%.
What expenses fall within the WKR?
As an employer, you can use the free space, for example, for the various giving occasions mentioned earlier in this newsletter. But also for bonuses, staff parties or supplies for the home office.
Special work clothes, coffee and tea in the workplace or a gym are not covered by the WKR and therefore do not come at the expense of the free space.
There are also the so-called targeted exemptions WKR. These include, for example, travel reimbursement, moving expenses for work and meals for overtime.