Corona bonus: Under this condition, the special payment remains tax-free
Created: 01/05/2022, 3:20 pm
By: Anne Hund
The corona premium is tax-free up to a maximum of 1,500 euros.
© Daniel Karmann / dpa
Some employees receive a bonus payment from their employer as a result of the corona pandemic.
Do you have to cede any of this?
More than one million
public sector employees in the federal states will receive a
tax and duty-free special corona payment of 1,300 euros
by March at the latest
.
Trade unions and representatives of the federal states had agreed on this, among other things, as the German Press Agency (dpa) reported on Monday (November 29).
According to the agreement, trainees, interns and student employees receive half of this, according to dpa, i.e. a
corona bonus
of 650 euros.
Corona bonus: Tax-free 1,500 euros in addition to wages possible
This is just an example.
Some employers also voluntarily pay their employees a so-called
Corona *
premium
,
or also called
the corona bonus
.
Is the bonus payment tax-free or do employees have to give up some of it?
There is a limit: the premium is tax-free up to a maximum of 1,500 euros.
It does not matter whether the
payment
is made monthly or as a one-off payment, as the
Stuttgarter Nachrichten
describes in its online edition.
In this way, the employer can also split the tax-free bonus - the main thing in any case is that the total of 1,500 euros is not exceeded.
"If the employer wants to pay a higher amount, employees have to pay tax on the difference," as the portal
stuttgarter-nachrichten.de
reports.
Another requirement for the
tax-free Corona bonus of up to 1,500 euros
is that it be granted “in addition to the wages owed anyway”.
In other words: the paid bonus must not replace wages.
Also read
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Video: That will change when it comes to money in 2022
Corona bonus tax-free until the end of March 2022
Employers have been able to pay their employees such a
tax-free corona bonus of up to 1,500 euros
since March 2020 - the regulation had in the meantime been extended to March 2022. For example, if a company paid its employees a corona bonus of 1,000 euros in 2020 ,
a bonus of 500 euros can now be granted
until March 31, 2022
, as the German Press Agency (dpa) clearly shows using an example made. However, anyone who has already received 1,500 euros as a corona bonus from their employer in 2020, for example, cannot receive another tax-free payment this year or next. Good to know: Who
has two or more employment relationships
with a
different employer
can receive the bonus of up to 1,500 euros for each employment relationship - even within a calendar year.
The money can be paid out to full-time or part-time employees, as the online edition of the
Stuttgarter Nachrichten
also described, as well as to mini-jobbers.
"The employment remains a 450-euro mini job, since the special payment is a tax-free and social security-free benefit," as the mini-job center had informed on its blog (as of June 10, 2021), among other things.
Also interesting:
employees can expect that much Christmas bonus in 2021
When do taxes for the corona premium become due?
What will apply to employees if the regulation expires at the end of March 2022?
Even after that, employers are still likely to pay out bonuses, according to the report on
stuttgarter-nachrichten.de
(as of October 19);
“These then have to be taxed if the deadline is not extended again”.
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