Anniversary bonuses will not be taxed from now on
The tax authorities have officially amended the bonus rule at the insistence of the AOb. From now on, all education employees will receive their anniversary bonus tax-free. "There can be absolutely no ambiguity about that."
Picture: Nanne Meulendijks
For former teacher Freek Kennis who worked in education for 40 years, the AOb successfully filed a case. He counted on a nice gift from his college and therefore retired even later. For an anniversary of 25 or 40 years, teaching staff will be credited net gross salary to the salary slip for one time. Nevertheless, the school board of Kennis withheld the tax: 1881 euros.
Too spacious
And that did not only happen with this teacher. At the AOb came last year several things inside, especially of education staff from MBO and HBO. The collective labor agreement for higher professional education states that employees will receive a tax-free bonus if they have worked for 25 or 40 years in one of the sectors associated with the ABP pension fund. Last year, the Tax and Customs Administration considered this to be 'too broad a concept' and wanted to add the requirement of employment with one employer or under one collective labor agreement. The service then sent letters to school board representatives advising them to withhold tax.
The Tax Authorities will now come back to this. After it was reverted by former Knowledge teacher, it is now also included in the Wage Taxes Handbook 2020. That manual now clearly states that the number of years with one pension provider also counts. “I am genuinely proud that we have arranged it collectively,” says AObsector manager Roelf van der Ploeg. “We have been working on it for more than a year. It's about 'real money'. It is the second time in a short time that we have been proved right by the tax authorities. ”
I am genuinely proud that we have arranged it collectively
Identical rule
According to Van der Ploeg, the Wob request helped AOblawyer Niels Buijense. He showed that the Tax and Customs Administration had included almost an identical rule, as described in the collective labor agreement for higher professional education, and does pay its own employees the anniversary bonus untaxed. There it was based on the number of years with the ABP pension fund.
Buijense: “The fact that it is now in that manual means that there is no longer any ambiguity. I advise employees who had an anniversary this year and where tax has been withheld, to point this out to their employer. ” For employees who celebrated their anniversary before January 1, 2020, the AOb provide advice on income tax. "Please contact our IAC for this," says Buijense.
Tax withheld from your anniversary bonus in 2019? Sign up!
• Did you receive an anniversary bonus in the period 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2019 because you were employed for 25 or 40 years?
• And has tax been withheld from this anniversary bonus?
If you meet these conditions, send an email to info @aob.nl with the subject: anniversary bonus and your AObmembership number. Enclose the following documents in the appendix: the salary slip of the month in which the anniversary bonus was paid, the annual statement of the year in which the bonus was paid and the final assessment of the tax authorities for the year in which the bonus was paid.
