Benefits are perks, services or goods, offered by companies that can be accessed by employees to optimize their salary. They’re often tailored to meet local regulations, cultural preferences, and economic conditions.
Some examples include:
- Meal vouchers
- Transport vouchers
- Childcare vouchers
- Health insurances
- Pension plans
- Wellness programs
- Trainings and Education
How benefits affect the employees’ salary?
In Spain, Retribución flexible (Flexible Remuneration) and Beneficios Sociales (Social Benefits) are distinct concepts:
- Retribución Flexible: This system allows employees to allocate a portion of their gross salary to specific benefits, such as meal vouchers or childcare, which are exempt from income tax up to certain limits. This arrangement reduces the employee's taxable income, effectively increasing their net salary.
- Beneficios Sociales: These are additional perks provided by the employer, such as health insurance or wellness programs, offered on top of the employee's base salary. The employer typically bears the full cost of these benefits, and they are not deducted from the employee's salary.
Regarding other markets, the concept of Retribución Flexible varies. In some countries, similar systems exist but may be referred to differently or have different tax implications. For instance, in Italy, meal vouchers (buoni pasto) are commonly used and are tax-exempt up to a certain amount.
What are the tax exemptions in Spain?
- Food: 11€ / working day
- Transport: 1.500€ / year with the exception of the province of Álava
- Health Insurance: 500€ / year except in the provinces of Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya.
- Childcare: Without limit except in Álava, Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya where the limit is 1.000€ / year
All the salary sacrifice that comes from the Flexible Remuneration doesn’t affect the social security contribution.
Getting started
The first thing you need to use benefits is to create a cards account. This account is a bank account with Stripe, that will allow you as a company to add funds to it. Some benefits, like Meals, Transport and childcare work with a virtual debit card, which takes balance from this account.
Stripe accounts
How to create a Stripe account?
If you have more than one legal entity, you need to create one account per legal entity. We can’t issue Benefits cards for your employees if the legal entity they belong to doesn’t have an account.
In order to create a Stripe account you’ll need to have Expenses product activated. This will make visible the flow to create a Stripe account from either Expenses or Cards navigation items. When starting, you’ll be redirected to an external page to create Stripe’s account.
Only a legal representative with 25% of ownership or more can create the account. This is normally the CEO of the company. It’s recommendable to invite the CEO to a closing meeting so they can see the value of the product and are familiar with the creation process before raising objections.
How much money should a company initially transfer to fund the Benefits account?
The minimum recommended top-up is €356 × number of eligible employees × 25% (estimated uptake rate). Companies can transfer more based on preference.
Information to create an account on Stripe
As the legal representative:
- Full name
- Birthdate
- Address
- Mobile phone
- Job role
- A color photo or scan of a valid identification document (DNI / NIE) is required
- A color photo or scan of a document verifying the user's address, such as a utility bill (electricity or water), is required. Mobile phone bills not valid.
As the company:
- Company name and Trademark (commercial name)
- Address
- Phone
- Company ID (CIF or Tax Identification Number)
- A document proving the existence of the company and its identification number, such as the company bylaws, is required
If you need a Bank certificate from Stripe, you need to request it through our Support Channel
Employee assignation to benefits
Eligibility criteria for employees to access the Benefits
The eligibility criteria for employees to access the Benefits product is: Employees must (1) live in Spain, (2) have a valid NIE/DNI (not just a passport), (3) have a permanent or temporary contract (not internships or freelance), and (4) earn over the minimum of the labor agreement they are in.
Employee information required to issue a Benefits card
The address, phone number, and birthdate are mandatory. Without this info, we cannot issue the card. The client must update missing details in Factorial before issuance. Companies can choose to issue cards to all eligible employees or a specific list of selected employees.
Card issuance takes a few minutes after funds have been confirmed and all employee info is complete. A welcome email is sent to employees automatically once their card is active.
Do they need to sign any contract?
Yes. they need to sign in Spain what’s called a “Contrato de Novación”. This contract allows companies to modify the base salary to compensate for Flexible Remuneration. If you don’t have a contract we can facilitate one to you.
How can an employee see their benefit card details?
- On desktop
- Go to My Expenses → My Card and click the eye button
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- On mobile: there are two ways to get this information. Both should include an option to add to the phone’s digital wallet.
- Benefits → See my card → Show details
- Expenses → card → Show details
How can employees see their transactions?
Only accessible from web:
- In your sidebar, go to My Expenses → My Cards
- Card → will be visible under the Card Payments tab
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As an alternative, if payments are made using Apple Pay or Google Pay from the mobile phone, you can also use the respective Wallet app to view those payments. Here, you can see their transactions in meals, transport and childcare.