Gift accepted by employer or business partner?
When you have to pay taxes
Created: 06/17/2022, 15:34
By: Franziska Kaindl
Have you received a gift from your employer, business partner or customer?
You may have to pay taxes for this.
A box of chocolates from the boss for a birthday or a glass of wine from a business partner or customer for a successful project: Almost every employee has received a little gift at some point.
Whilst there is always great joy in receiving a gift, it is important to remember that some gifts are subject to tax.
Whether you have to pay something to the tax office afterwards depends on the value of the gift and who you received it from.
You have to pay taxes for some gifts that you receive as an employee.
© Andrey Popov/Imago
Received a present from your employer?
What you need to consider from a tax point of view
Small gifts that do not exceed a value of 10 euros are generally tax-free, as the income tax aid association United Income Tax Aid (VLH) informs.
Other benefits in kind – this is what gifts from the employer are called in tax law – are tax-free up to a value of 50 euros per month.
As soon as this sum is exceeded, taxes and social security contributions are due.
There is one exception, however, for special occasions: Your boss can give you a gift for your birthday or service anniversary with a maximum value of 60 euros without incurring any taxes.
However, according to the United Income Tax Assistance Association, it may only be a typical gift such as a bottle of wine
Gift from business partner or customer: When to pay taxes
If you receive a gift from a business partner or customer that does not exceed a value of 10 euros, the same applies as for a gift from the boss - the gift is tax-free.
Once the value is above that, you need to check what scenario is happening.
As a rule, business partners subject their gifts to business friends to
flat-rate tax of 30 percent
(§ 37b EStG), as
haufe.de
writes.
This means that the giver pays the tax so that the recipient no longer has to worry about it.
However, the business partner must inform you of this so that you can in turn inform your employer.
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However, if the business partner giving the gift does not pay tax on the gift at a flat rate, you must also inform your employer of this.
If the value is below the non-cash exemption limit
of 50 euros
, the gift remains tax-free - provided that the limit has not yet been exceeded for you in this month.
Otherwise, according to Vereinigte Lohnsteuerhilfe eV, your employer can show the gift on your payslip so that you pay taxes and social security contributions automatically.
However, if the employer does not pay tax on the gift either, you must enter it yourself in your tax return in Appendix N in the line "Taxable wages from which no tax has been deducted".
(fk)
