Benefits in kind: Are they taxable?

Fringe benefits are taxable just like salary. These are goods or services provided by the employer free of charge or at prices below their real value.
These fringe benefits are subject to specific tax rules from 1 January 2005.

Several cases of fringe benefits should be considered:

-The tools of the new information technologies and communication.
Clearly it is for the employee to own a mobile phone or a computer paid for by his employer. This benefit in kind is in fact not said when the use of these devices by the employee as an individual is considered negligible by the employer. The benefit in kind if not declared on a flat rate of 10% of the total units available to the employee.

-Regarding the provision of meals to the employee, the benefit in kind is a flat rate set at 4.25 euros per meal for 2008.

-The benefit in kind for accommodation of the employee may be determined on the basis of a fixed salary depending on the person or from the rental value of housing.

Finally, the professional vehicle available to the employee for personal needs must be a benefit in kind. This is determined either by the basic social package is based on actual expenditures. In principle, a kilometric scale determines the amount of benefit in kind to be reported based on miles traveled by the employee personally.

But some are paid to employees by their employers are not considered as a benefit in kind. For example the accommodation available to policemen and their families, meals for instructors summer camps and educators for children with disabilities or exceptional gifts and unrelated to the profession made to employees and whose value does not exceed 139 euros in 2008.