31-03-09 A bonus plan starting January 1st, 2009? The clock is ticking…
A bonus plan can be introduced with retroactive applicability. If you are currently examining the opportunity of introducing this beneficial scheme to attain collective goals set for 2009, this is a is a possibility but a decision will soon have to be made.
Since January 1st 2008 you can reword your employees for their hard work in a fiscal- and RSZ-friendly manner via the scheme for non-recurrent result-oriented benefits (‘the bonus plan’).
The scheme consists of granting a bonus exempt of the regular social security contributions and company deductions when collective goals are achieved. As an employer, you only have to pay a particular solidarity contribution of 33%. You can also integrally deduct the amount granted with a limit of 2 314 Euro, together with the solidarity contribution owed on top, as a professional cost.
Before being able to profit from these possibilities, you still need to introduce the bonus plan. If there is syndic delegation for the employees you are considering the introduction of a bonus plan for, this needs to be done within the framework of collective labour agreement. If there is no syndic delegation for the targeted audience, a bonus plan can be introduced through an act of accession or via a collective labour agreement made with the trade union secretar(y)(ies).
It is possible to start up a bonus plan with retroactive applicability. This retroactivity is however limited to maximum 1/3 of the reference period counting from the moment the necessary documents are deposited with the registry of the FOD WASO (Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue). What does this mean in practice? Often a reference period of one calendar year is used, starting January 1st and ending December 31st. In this case, the reference period is 12 months so that retroactivity is limited to 4 months. If you want to launch the scheme January 1st 2009, you will need to deposit the necessary documents with FOD WASO’s registry by the end of April at the latest.
Before depositing the necessary documents with the registry of the FOD WASO, however, you will need to take several other steps. If you are looking to introduce a bonus plan via a collective labour agreement, take care to allow enough time for setting up a plan as well as negotiating it with trade unions.
If you are introducing the bonus plan via act of accession, you will need to provide the employees within the target group with a copy of the bonus plan. You will need to allow them 15 calendar days to give their feedback and remarks. After these 15 days, you will need to send the plan, along with the act of accession and remark register, to the designated social inspection. The social inspection will then send you a receipt. You will need to deposit this receipt along with all the other documents with the registry of the FOD WASO.
If you are considering introducing a bonus plan for collective results to be achieved in 2009 and you want professional support in doing this, contact Acerta Legal Consult (tel. 016 24 63 45 or e-mail: legal.consult@acerta.be).
