Inps, Fringe benefit: among the procedures for adjustment there is also the Friben variable

With message no. 4616/2022 of last December 22, the National Social Security Institute (INPS) issued operational instructions for the adjustment of amounts paid as "Fringe benefits" that employers provide to their employees. The message from INPS outlines the three methods for requesting the amounts paid.

Fringe benefit regulatory exceptions for 2022

There are two important new features regarding "Fringe benefits" for 2022 introduced by Law no. 142 of September 21, 2022: the increase in the exemption threshold for amounts paid as Fringe Benefits, from 258.23 euros to 3,000 euros for 2022, and the inclusion of amounts paid by employers for the payment of employees' domestic utilities for water, electricity, and natural gas services.

With these temporary changes to Article 51 of Presidential Decree December 22, 1986, no. 917 (so-called Consolidated Income Tax Act, TUIR), the legislator aimed to provide assistance to workers subject to restrictions for the 2022 tax year, stating that only exceeding the new temporary amount set at 3,000.00 euros will be considered fully included in the employee income and therefore subject to social security contributions.

Exceeding the 3,000 euro threshold for "Fringe Benefits", as also noted by the Revenue Agency circular no. 35/e of November 4, 2022, for 2022 only, entails the taxation of the entire amount for both social security and income calculation, including amounts paid for domestic utilities.

The so-called "fuel vouchers", introduced by Article 2 of Decree-Law March 21, 2022, no. 21, which provides, limited to the 2022 tax period, the possibility for private employers to provide their employees with fuel vouchers, or similar titles, excluded from taxation pursuant to Article 51, paragraph 3, of the TUIR, for a maximum amount of 200 euros per employee, constitutes a further distinct benefit.

Calculation methods for employer adjustment operations

For social security purposes, if the prescribed limits are exceeded, the employer who will carry out the adjustment will pay the contributions. The adjustment will take place according to the following methods. Employers:

• Will increase the taxable salary for the month to which the fringe benefit (or fuel voucher) report refers for the 2022 tax year if it exceeds 3,000 euros (or 200 euros for fuel vouchers)
• Will withhold from the employee the difference in the amount of the employee's share of the contribution not already withheld.

If, at the time of adjustment, the amount is less than 3,000 euros for Fringe Benefits or 200 euros for the Fuel Bonus, the employer must recover the contributions paid on the difference

Operational instructions for recovering paid contributions

Employers who need to recover amounts already paid can follow one of the three methods explained in detail in INPS message no. 4616/2022.

1) You can act using the contribution variable "Friben" exclusively for reports for December 2022. Frbdim: to be used, possibly together with Friben, if for the specific competence there is a maximum excess. Frbmas: to be used to report part of the maximum excess, present in reports for periods after those affected by fringe benefits, in the taxable amount, as a result of the decrease in taxable amounts of previous periods.

2) With a one-off official adjustment, which will be carried out by INPS, through a bidirectional box with the subject "Fringe Benefit up to 3000 euros" and a declaration of responsibility by the employer certifying what is stated in the related salary/contribution report (Uniemens flow). At this point, the system will generate a Ticket corresponding to the INPS protocol, certifying the sending of the bidirectional communication which must be reported in the Uniemens flow. Option two can be used exclusively for reports for January and February 2023.

3) with the standard adjustment methods, for each relevant period and specifying the taxable amount net of fringe benefits, in cases where the previous methods cannot be applied.

The processes are alternative to each other and are therefore available as three distinct possibilities.