How to Substitute Nursery Vouchers for Part of your Wage and Pay Less Tax in Spain
The companies that offer the luncheon vouchers are the same ones that offer the nursery vouchers: Ticket Guarderíaand Guardería Pass. These vouchers can be paid by the company you work with under the following conditions:
- must be nominative (name of the worker, not spouse/partner)
- have to be numbered
- cannot be transferred to another person nor exchanged for money
In order to persuade the company where you work that they’re a good idea, here are a few convincing arguments:
- Payment of part of wages in vouchers is not subject to company social security dues in respect of the employee
- Cost deductible from the amount used to calculate company tax
- Keeps employees happy!
And for the employee:
- Amount received in vouchers is not taxed, unlike wages
- Don’t need to change nursery as you can request that the nursery that your child attends joins the system
According to the information on the website for Ticket Guardería, the typical yearly saving for a company would be 170€ and for the employee 145€. Of course, savings in tax depends on each person’s income and is limited to 30% of annual salary. Additionally in some areas in Spain the amount cannot exceed 1000€ per year (Alava, Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa).
The vouchers can either be supplied in paper, which are handed over to the nursery each month, or there’s also an online paperless system.
On the company websites we’ve seen that they also offer a similar system for employees that use public transport, again with savings for both employer and employees. The only thing that we can’t find is the actual cost for the companies involved (because nothing is free!). However, we think that if there’s a few people interested where you work, why not have a chat with the Human Resources Department and start dropping a few hints – in times of recession any saving can help.
