Pursuant to Articles 40 and 41 of the CLA for professional road haulage and rental of mobile cranes itinerant workers in this sector are entitled to allowances for expenses incurred on the road. Following the introduction of the working expenses scheme in 2011, the Tax Authorities approved the exclusion of these CAO allowances from payroll taxes under a targeted exemption. This approval ended on 1 July 2015 (simultaneously with the CLA), but has since been extended, following a request to that effect on behalf of interest group TLN until 31 December 2021 (interim change in laws and regulations reserved, of course).
Conditions for the exemption are:
- that the costs refer to the expenses incurred by the driver en route, consisting of meals (breakfast, lunch and evening meal), other refreshments and minor expenses (for sanitary facilities and laundry costs) and;
- that the employer does not make or include in the employee's salary any other tax-free allowances or benefits in kind for these types of costs (additional allowances or benefits in kind may, however, be designated as so-called final taxable wages; hence, as part of the tax-free WKR lump sum or taxed at the final tax rate of 80%).
The former condition is obviously met if the employer uses the amounts specified in the collective agreement. Individual employers are obviously not required to investigate whether their employees spend the CLA allowances on the specified cost(s).