Since November 11, 2017, a bonus arising from the employer’s liberality, paid in the form of goods, services, or a cash amount to an employee, is not included in the base for the calculation of social security contributions. This understanding is established in Consultation Solution 151 of the Federal Revenue Service, published this Tuesday (5/20).
The understanding followed a change brought about by the labor reform, under which amounts paid by the employer, by mere liberality, spontaneously and unexpectedly, “by reason of performance superior to what is ordinarily expected,” would not be included in remuneration for labor and social security purposes.
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In the case, an information technology company that intends to implement a new policy of recognizing its employees with bonus payments, once a year, for the purpose of rewarding the exceptional performance of its employees, submitted a consultation arguing that “the new tax legislation did not define the concept of bonus and allowance.”
“Moreover, it did not establish objective criteria for classifying the amounts under the rule of non-levy transcribed above, generating doubts and legal uncertainty for taxpayers.”
For the Federal Revenue Service, the labor reform modified article 457 of the CLT, removing from the bonus its salary nature. The legislator defined a bonus as the employer’s liberality in the form of goods, services, or money paid as a result of performance superior to what is ordinarily expected in the exercise of one’s activities.
Therefore, under this understanding, only the bonus granted by liberality (that is, one not provided for in law, a normative instrument, internal regulation, or the employment contract) will cease to be included in the other labor amounts and to be subject to the levy of social security charges, and it must be intended for facts or situations above what is ordinarily expected of the employee. Read the full Conjur article.
Source: Conjur
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