With the aim of improving the well-being of their employees, several companies have chosen to offer corporate welfare services. These include trips, events and activities that fall within the world of travel. In short, the employer can decide to “reward” their employees by providing welfare credit, which guarantees the company and the worker a series of tax advantages. But be careful because, as explained by the experts of ACI blueteam, a reality of the ACI Automobile Club of Italy, specialized in services in the field of Travel and Holidays, Events and Business Travel, the system is not flexible and the rules do not allow for exceptions.
A rigid system
First of all it is good to clarify that the amount paid by the company cannot be paid in cash to the worker. The latter, in fact, cannot request money in exchange for the voucher. The inability to monetize is not the only inflexibility of this tool. The holiday voucher cannot be transferred by the worker to third parties and must necessarily be used to purchase a holiday intended for the worker or family members. The other problem concerns the value of the voucher.
If, in fact, the welfare credit decided by the company were one thousand euros, the worker would be required to buy a travel service for one thousand euros. In short, the employee will not be able to integrate the credit, but will have to orient his choice on something of equal value. As the Revenue Agency explains, through resolution 55 of 25 September 2020 “the value of these benefits will not be taxable only in the event that the employee is granted the possibility of adhering, or not, to the offer proposed by the employer , therefore without being able to agree on other aspects relating to the use of the work and / or service, without prejudice to the moment of use of the benefit which may be agreed with the employer or with the structure providing the service “. So how to move in this inelastic procedure?
Obligatory path
The solutions are very few. The employee holding a credit, in fact, can choose his trip from a catalog of proposals that are however aligned with his own spending possibility, so as to allocate the amount at his disposal, without integrating or modifying the proposal. The only freedom granted concerns the choice of the travel date, this is for the worker. In light of the numerous constraints imposed by the law, travel boxes could represent the products that best suit what is defined by the legislator in terms of welfare and holidays. The rigidity of the system, explain the ACI blueteam experts, enormously reduces the potential of the tool, which was created instead to create well-being for workers.
A more flexible tool
The travel voucher, in fact, is very far from the current travel use methods, increasingly characterized by dynamic pricing, personalization, freedom of choice and centrality of the customer and his travel needs. Respecting the understandable concerns related to a possible fraudulent use of the instrument, which by nature represents a method of supplying value that is not subject to taxation for either the provider or the recipient, an expansion of the limitations on the possibility of using the welfare credit for the holidays it would be very good for the entire tourism sector, particularly affected by the pandemic, and for the beneficiaries themselves, who would find themselves increasing their spending capacity, which is now severely tested by inflation.