Remuneration to Taxpayers and Sickness Insurance Benefits

Elżbieta KOBIERSKA
HR & Payroll Senior Specialist at RSM Poland

Can an employer receive remuneration from the Tax Office or Social Insurance Company [ZUS] for the taxes and social insurance benefits that the employer has paid?

Yes. The regulations provide for such entitlement to flat-rate remuneration:

• 0.3% on the amount of taxes (advances) collected to the State budget for taxpayers on the basis of Article 28 of the Act: Tax Ordinance dated 28 August 1997, and
• 0.1% on the amount of sickness insurance benefits disbursed by payers on behalf of the Social Insurance Company [ZUS], pursuant to the Regulation of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy dated 14 December 1998 concerning the amount and the manner of payment of remuneration to premium payers for the fulfilment of the social insurance tasks in the event of sickness and maternity.

What is important is the fact that a premium payer cannot calculate any such remuneration for the disbursement of accident insurance benefits.

Are all tax and benefit payers entitled to receive such remuneration?

A payer must meet the following conditions to receive the remuneration:

• Taxes must be calculated in a due amount and paid on time and/ or

• Social insurance benefits in case of sickness and maternity must be calculated in the due amount and paid on time and also

• Information related to such benefits must be provided to the Social Insurance Company [ZUS].

Failure to fulfill the above conditions, i.e., for instance, delay in the payment of a tax or correction to the calculated and paid benefits, results in the loss of entitlement to the remuneration.

At this point, it is necessary to note that a payer is a natural person, legal person or an organizational unit without legal personality that is required by the tax law to calculate a tax, collect it from a tax bearer and pay it to a tax body within a prescribed period.

The entitlement to benefits and the amount of benefits are established and paid only by those payers of sickness insurance premiums that have more than 20 workers registered for sickness insurance as at 30 November of last year.

It is also important to take into account the fact that the regulations about the method and the manner of calculating the remuneration for the payment of taxes or sickness insurance benefits do not make it mandatory to pay such remuneration. In each case such remuneration is optional and a payer may and does not have to use the right to such remuneration and also the payer may waive it at any time.

How to receive the payer’s remuneration and when and where to disclose it?

Taxpayers disclose the remuneration in the annual PIT-4R and PIT-8AR returns and receive it through reducing the payments for calculated, collected and paid taxes. The provisions of the Tax Ordinance do not specify the exact date for the taxpayer to receive the remuneration. This is why the remuneration may be received upon payment of the tax for which the remuneration is due or at any other time, however, not later than the period of limitation, meaning up to 5 years from the end of a calendar year in which the tax was due for payment.

Payers of sickness insurance benefits settle the remuneration in the social insurance statement filed for a month in which they disbursed the benefits and they deduct the remuneration from the due social insurance premiums.

It is necessary to note that when a payer filed a social insurance statement with the Social Insurance Company [ZUS] without deducting the remuneration due to the payer, such remuneration cannot be deducted in a corrective statement (which is not the case for PIT-4 or PIT-8AR taxpayers).

Payer’s remuneration – is it income ?

The tax law clearly states that income from business activities also includes any remuneration to payers for the timely payment of taxes or the disbursement of benefits. A conclusion is that such a received bonus will be reduced by income tax at the rate of 18%.

Does it pay off?

Some businessmen may think it is not worth the trouble. However, I believe it is worth using any option of payment offered by the tax authorities and the Social Insurance Company, even if it is just a few hundred zloties a year. It is always an extra bonus and, after all, the employer is always required to make correct settlements with those institutions on time. So why not take the money for that at the same time?

Although the regulations that envisage remuneration to payers for their timely payment of taxes or benefits have been in force for a long time now, many employers still have no idea or forget about them and, as a result, do not use the available remuneration options. I hope that with this article I will remind and encourage all entitled employers to receive the remuneration for the taxes and benefits they paid on time.