Italy: Employee Perks: Customary and Trending Employee Benefit Perks in Italy
Article provided by Asinta’s Italian Partner De Besi-Di Giacomo.
The classic benefit plans like Life, Medical and Personal Accident continue to be very popular with different levels of coverage, but they are always on the higher side. The trend now is towards flexible benefit plans. There are also new tax rules which allow employers and employees to enjoy new services.
The flexible benefits listed below are the ones multinational employers tend to offer, and are designed to enhance the welfare of the employees and aid their daily life expenses. In certain sectors these allow the employees to use the plans in a tax efficient way and in turn it decreases the social security costs for the government. These perks include:
Long Term Care– Designed to both help the employee and relieve the central social security system from the cost of handling the care for significantly disabled people. The contribution is completely tax exempt.
Fully integrated pension plans– More flexibility for the employer which was hitherto not possible.
Other perks include:
- Meal vouchers
- School/tuition fees and related expenses (from kindergarten to post-graduate courses)
- Summer/winter camps for employees’ children
- Support for elderly and/or disabled family members
- Interest payments on loans and mortgages (up to 90% of total)
- Some expenses covered for leisure and cultural activities including travel, subscription to sport clubs and fitness centers, and cultural events
- Passes for public transportation