The instructions are ready for employers who intend to pay their employees with dependent children sums or reimbursements as benefits. Circular no. 23/E today provides clarifications on the new discipline of company welfare, following the innovations introduced by the “Labour Decree” which raised the limit within which it is possible to offer employees tax-free goods and services. The same decree (Legislative Decree no. 48/2023) also included among the “bonuses” that do not contribute to the formation of employee income, also the sums paid or reimbursed to workers for the payment of electricity, water and gas domestic utilities. +
The audience of beneficiaries
For employees with dependent children, therefore, benefits of up to 3,000 euros received from the employer are exempt from Irpef, as well as from the substitute tax on productivity bonuses. The subsidy also includes sums paid or reimbursed for the payment of domestic utilities for the integrated water service, electricity and natural gas. The circular specifies that the benefit is applied in full to each parent, holder of income from employment and/or similar, even in the presence of only one child, provided that the same is fiscally dependent on both, and recalls that, for the tax authorities, children with an income not exceeding 2,840.51 euros (gross of deductible charges) are considered dependents. Since the benefit is due for 2023, this income limit – which rises to 4,000 euros for children up to 24 years of age – must be verified as of December 31 of this year. The document also clarifies that the new relief is up to both parents even if they agree to attribute the deduction for dependent children in full to the parent who, of the two, has the higher income.
The facilitation rules
To access the benefit, the worker must declare to his employer that he is entitled to it, indicating the tax code of the only dependent child or children. Since there is no specific form for this declaration, it can be made according to methods agreed between the two parties. Naturally, when the conditions for the relief no longer apply – for example in the event that, during the year, a child is no longer dependent for tax purposes – the employee is required to promptly notify the employer. The latter will therefore recover the benefit not due in subsequent pay periods and, in any case, within the terms for the adjustment operations.