The journey from home to work is the journey that every employee must take every day to get to and from the place of employment, an expense that can therefore turn into a waste not only economic but also time.
In principle, this time frame does not fall within the expenses to be incurred by the company , but the situation changes in the event of business trips or when employees do not have a fixed place of work and their daily movements are therefore decided by the employer himself. .
To date, more and more employees are requesting subsidies from the company in the form of welfare services . In this regard, smart working is certainly at the top of the wish list, especially following these years of pandemic. But let's take a closer look at what it consists of, the current problems and how both workers and companies could benefit from it.
Smart working and mileage reimbursement
It is common ground that an employee who has to go to a place other than his usual location and who uses his own or hired car is entitled to a mileage reimbursement from the company.
This situation, however, does not apply in the simple case of the commute from home to work that is made on a daily basis. This type of travel, in fact, cannot be considered a trip and therefore is not required to be reimbursed or paid.
As we have already mentioned, there is only one exception to this case and it concerns workers without a usual place of work. At this point, however, what changes for the employer when you find yourself in front of an employee in smart working?
This modality, in fact, has now reached very high percentages and therefore it is not uncommon to be faced with the situation of a different route change, which does not include the place of work, but the home of the worker and his car.
In this regard, it is therefore necessary to pay attention to the tax treatment , which in normal situations and on the basis of article 51, paragraph 5, of the Tuir , entails for missions outside the municipal territory appropriately documented , mileage reimbursements that do not contribute to forming income from work.
Currently, it is good to know that resolution 92 / E / 2015 is expressed precisely in the event that the employee uses their car and the distance between the place of smart working and the destination of the trip is greater than that calculated by the headquarters. of the company.
In this case, in fact, the mileage reimbursement will be increased in its excess part and will constitute a taxable income for the worker. On the contrary, when the journey is shorter, the refund will be exempt from taxation.
Doubts to date
Unfortunately, the tax legislation on reimbursement for smart working workers is still too incomplete and controversial. Currently, in fact, the tax authorities have provided exhaustive information only on some aspects of the tax treatment regarding the reimbursement of expenses for these employees.
On the contrary, however, for home workers there is still a need for specific regulation, which at this point should take into account a probable individual agreement, according to which the company should undertake to organize itself in the contractual phase with the worker.
In this case it would be necessary to elect a prevalent place of work, such as the domicile, which could become the usual place of work and thus act as a reference for the mileage reimbursement.
In this way, when the employer needs to request the employee to travel out of the ordinary for business needs and the latter uses his own vehicle starting from his home, the indemnities paid and appropriately documented could then be considered exempt.
On the contrary, in the event of a lack of specific and detailed individual or collective bargaining regarding smart working, the reimbursements for the home-work journey could not be considered non-taxable in terms of both contributions and taxes.
The need for greater clarity in this area
In any case, it would be desirable at this point to have more interpretative intervention by the financial administration on this issue. On the other hand, smart working is a way of working that is destined to remain permanently.
Witness the fact that over 90% of companies have now chosen to continue on this path and have thus implemented their options, even if there are still many issues to be solved in our country.
The reimbursement of the mileage allowance should be calculated by evaluating the actual journey made by the worker, taking into account the place of departure and return indicated in the remote work agreement.
The advantages for companies and the need for new benefits
Often companies that do not yet use smart working ask themselves what the advantages are. However, the studies carried out in this regard have shown that the positive aspects following this choice are not few or negligible.
We are talking, for example, of a significant reduction in the costs of physical spaces , as well as the problem of absenteeism . But above all, there is no doubt that the productivity figures have been surprising, highlighting a very high improvement.
There are certainly big gaps to be filled and the mileage reimbursement is just one of the most urgent ones and a cause for extensive debate. Let's think about the question of bills, for example.
Currently, employees of companies that operate in smart working certainly spend more money on average on electricity, gas, water and internet utilities. According to recent studies, the extra expense is around 57 euros for electricity in the bill each month and 159 euros for the gas bill.
There is no reason to doubt further increases given the geopolitical situation in recent months. At the moment, however, the only way to be able to reimburse your workers without having to pay additional taxes is to calculate the share of costs saved by the company.
At this point, a further step could be to be able to include other types of shopping vouchers among the fringe benefits, that is the goods and services that are however “visible” in the paycheck.