When is a fringe benefit provided

A widow or widower of a former employee who retired or left on disability. You can exclude the value of a de minimis benefit you provide to an employee from the employee's wages. A de minimis benefit is any property or service you provide to an employee that has so little value taking into account how frequently you provide similar benefits to your employees that accounting for it would be unreasonable or administratively impracticable.

Cash and cash equivalent fringe benefits for example, gift certificates, gift cards, and the use of a charge card or credit card , no matter how little, are never excludable as a de minimis benefit. However, meal money and local transportation fare, if provided on an occasional basis and because of overtime work, may be excluded as discussed later.

Personal use of an employer-provided cell phone provided primarily for noncompensatory business purposes. See Employer-Provided Cell Phones , later in this section, for details.

Holiday or birthday gifts , other than cash, with a low fair market value. Also, flowers or fruit or similar items provided to employees under special circumstances for example, on account of illness, a family crisis, or outstanding performance.

Certain meals. See Meals , later in this section, for details. Occasional parties or picnics for employees and their guests. Occasional tickets for theater or sporting events. Certain transportation fare. See Transportation Commuting Benefits , later in this section, for details. If a benefit provided to an employee doesn't qualify as de minimis for example, the frequency exceeds a limit described earlier , then generally the entire benefit must be included in income.

For this exclusion, treat any recipient of a de minimis benefit as an employee. This exclusion applies to household and dependent care services you directly or indirectly pay for or provide to an employee under a written dependent care assistance program that covers only your employees.

The services must be for a qualifying person's care and must be provided to allow the employee to work. These requirements are basically the same as the tests the employee would have to meet to claim the dependent care credit if the employee paid for the services.

For more information, see Can You Claim the Credit? You can exclude the value of benefits you provide to an employee under a dependent care assistance program from the employee's wages if you reasonably believe that the employee can exclude the benefits from gross income.

However, the exclusion can't be more than the smaller of the earned income of either the employee or employee's spouse. Special rules apply to determine the earned income of a spouse who is either a student or not able to care for himself or herself. For more information on the earned income limit, see Pub. You can't exclude dependent care assistance from the wages of a highly compensated employee unless the benefits provided under the program don't favor highly compensated employees and the program meets the requirements described in section d of the Internal Revenue Code.

Report the value of all dependent care assistance you provide to an employee under a dependent care assistance program in box 10 of the employee's Form W Include any amounts you can't exclude from the employee's wages in boxes 1, 3, and 5. Oak Co. In addition, it provides occasional on-site dependent care to its employees at no cost. Emily, an employee of Oak Co. In addition, Emily used the on-site dependent care several times.

This exclusion applies to educational assistance you provide to employees under an educational assistance program. The exclusion also applies to graduate-level courses. Educational assistance means amounts you pay or incur for your employees' education expenses. These expenses generally include the cost of books, equipment, fees, supplies, and tuition. However, these expenses don't include the cost of a course or other education involving sports, games, or hobbies, unless the education:.

Education expenses don't include the cost of tools or supplies other than textbooks your employee is allowed to keep at the end of the course. Nor do they include the cost of lodging, meals, or transportation. Your employee must be able to provide substantiation to you that the educational assistance provided was used for qualifying education expenses. The exclusion applies to the payment by an employer, whether paid to the employee or to a lender, of principal or interest on any qualified education loan incurred by the employee for the employee's education.

Qualified education loans are defined in chapter 11 of Pub. This exclusion expires January 1, , unless extended by future legislation. An educational assistance program is a separate written plan that provides educational assistance only to your employees.

The program qualifies only if all of the following tests are met. The program benefits employees who qualify under rules set up by you that don't favor highly compensated employees. To determine whether your program meets this test, don't consider employees excluded from your program who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement if there is evidence that educational assistance was a subject of good-faith bargaining.

The program doesn't allow employees to choose to receive cash or other benefits that must be included in gross income instead of educational assistance. Working condition benefits may be excluded from wages. Property or a service provided is a working condition benefit to the extent that if the employee paid for it, the amount paid would have been allowable as a business or depreciation expense.

See Working Condition Benefits , later in this section. This exclusion applies to a price reduction you give your employee on property or services you offer to customers in the ordinary course of the line of business in which the employee performs substantial services.

It applies whether the property or service is provided at no charge in which case only part of the discount may be excludable as a qualified employee discount or at a reduced price. It also applies if the benefit is provided through a partial or total cash rebate. The benefit may be provided either directly by you or indirectly through a third party.

For example, an employee of an appliance manufacturer may receive a qualified employee discount on the manufacturer's appliances purchased at a retail store that offers the appliances for sale to customers. Employee discounts don't apply to discounts on real property or discounts on personal property of a kind commonly held for investment such as stocks or bonds. They also don't include discounts on a line of business of the employer for which the employee doesn't provide substantial services, or discounts on property or services of a kind that aren't offered for sale to customers.

Therefore, discounts on items sold in an employee store that aren't sold to customers aren't excluded from employee income. Also, employee discounts provided by another employer through a reciprocal agreement aren't excluded. A widow or widower of an employee who retired or left on disability. Treat discounts you provide to the spouse or dependent child of an employee as provided to the employee. For this fringe benefit, dependent child means any son, stepson, daughter, stepdaughter, or eligible foster child who is a dependent of the employee, or both of whose parents have died and who hasn't reached age Treat a child of divorced parents as a dependent of both parents.

You can generally exclude the value of an employee discount you provide an employee from the employee's wages, up to the following limits. For a discount on merchandise or other property, your gross profit percentage times the price you charge nonemployee customers for the property. Generally, determine your gross profit percentage in the line of business based on all property you offer to customers including employee customers and your experience during the tax year immediately before the tax year in which the discount is available.

To figure your gross profit percentage, subtract the total cost of the property from the total sales price of the property and divide the result by the total sales price of the property.

Employers that are in their first year of existence may estimate their gross profit percentage based on its mark-up from cost or refer to an appropriate industry average. If substantial changes in an employer's business indicate at any time that it is inappropriate for the prior year's gross profit percentage to be used for the current year, the employer must, within a reasonable period, redetermine the gross profit percentage for the remaining portion of the current year as if such portion of the year were the first year of the employer's existence.

You can't exclude from the wages of a highly compensated employee any part of the value of a discount that isn't available on the same terms to one of the following groups. A group of employees defined under a reasonable classification you set up that doesn't favor highly compensated employees. There are three kinds of stock options—incentive stock options, employee stock purchase plan options, and nonstatutory nonqualified stock options. Wages for social security, Medicare, and FUTA taxes don't include remuneration resulting from the exercise of an incentive stock option or an employee stock purchase plan option, or from any disposition of stock acquired by exercising such an option.

Additionally, federal income tax withholding isn't required on the income resulting from a disqualifying disposition of stock acquired by the exercise of an incentive stock option or an employee stock purchase plan option, or on income equal to the discount portion of stock acquired by the exercise of an employee stock purchase plan option resulting from any qualifying disposition of the stock. The employer must report as income in box 1 of Form W-2 a the discount portion of stock acquired by the exercise of an employee stock purchase plan option upon a qualifying disposition of the stock, and b the spread between the exercise price and the fair market value of the stock at the time of exercise upon a disqualifying disposition of stock acquired by the exercise of an incentive stock option or an employee stock purchase plan option.

An employer must report the excess of the fair market value of stock received upon exercise of a nonstatutory stock option over the amount paid for the stock option on Form W-2 in boxes 1, 3 up to the social security wage base , and 5, and in box 12 using the code "V. An employee who transfers his or her interest in nonstatutory stock options to the employee's former spouse incident to a divorce isn't required to include an amount in gross income upon the transfer.

The former spouse, rather than the employee, is required to include an amount in gross income when the former spouse exercises the stock options. See Revenue Ruling and Revenue Ruling for details. Revenue Ruling , I. Employee stock options aren't subject to Railroad Retirement Tax. In Wisconsin Central Ltd.

United States , S. If you're a railroad employer, don't withhold Tier 1 and Tier 2 taxes on compensation from railroad employees covered by the RRTA exercising such options. You must still withhold federal income tax on taxable compensation from railroad employees exercising their options.

An election under section 83 i applies only for federal income tax purposes. The election has no effect on the application of social security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes. If a section 83 i election is made for an option exercise, that option will not be considered an incentive stock option or an option granted pursuant to an employee stock purchase plan. These rules apply to stock attributable to options exercised, or RSUs settled, after December 31, For more information, see section 83 i and Notice , I.

For each employee, you must report in box 12 of Form W-2 using code "GG" the amount included in income in the calendar year from qualified equity grants under section 83 i.

You must also report in box 12 using code "HH" the total amount of income deferred under section 83 i determined as of the close of the calendar year. For more information about employee stock options, see sections 83, , , and of the Internal Revenue Code and their related regulations. The value of the business use of an employer-provided cell phone, provided primarily for noncompensatory business reasons, is excludable from an employee's income as a working condition fringe benefit.

Personal use of an employer-provided cell phone, provided primarily for noncompensatory business reasons, is excludable from an employee's income as a de minimis fringe benefit. The term "cell phone" also includes other similar telecommunications equipment. For the rules relating to these types of benefits, see De Minimis Minimal Benefits , earlier in this section, and Working Condition Benefits , later in this section.

You provide a cell phone primarily for noncompensatory business purposes if there are substantial business reasons for providing the cell phone. Examples of substantial business reasons include the employer's:. Need to contact the employee at all times for work-related emergencies,. Requirement that the employee be available to speak with clients at times when the employee is away from the office, and. Need to speak with clients located in other time zones at times outside the employee's normal workday.

Cell phones provided to promote goodwill, boost morale, or attract prospective employees. You can't exclude from an employee's wages the value of a cell phone provided to promote goodwill of an employee, to attract a prospective employee, or as a means of providing additional compensation to an employee.

For additional information on the tax treatment of employer-provided cell phones, see Notice , I. You provide it to a group of employees. See The employee rule , later. It provides an amount of insurance to each employee based on a formula that prevents individual selection.

This formula must use factors such as the employee's age, years of service, pay, or position. You provide it under a policy you directly or indirectly carry. Determine the cost of the insurance, for this purpose, as explained under Coverage over the limit , later. Insurance that doesn't provide general death benefits, such as travel insurance or a policy providing only accidental death benefits. Life insurance on the life of your employee's spouse or dependent.

However, you may be able to exclude the cost of this insurance from the employee's wages as a de minimis benefit. See De Minimis Minimal Benefits , earlier in this section. Insurance provided under a policy that provides a permanent benefit an economic value that extends beyond 1 policy year, such as paid-up or cash-surrender value , unless certain requirements are met.

See Regulations section 1. A leased employee who has provided services to you on a substantially full-time basis for at least a year if the services are performed under your primary direction and control.

Generally, life insurance isn't group-term life insurance unless you provide it at some time during the calendar year to at least 10 full-time employees. For this rule and the first exception discussed next, count employees who choose not to receive the insurance as if they do receive insurance, unless, to receive it, they must contribute to the cost of benefits other than the group-term life insurance.

For example, count an employee who could receive insurance by paying part of the cost, even if that employee chooses not to receive it. However, don't count an employee who chooses not to receive insurance if the employee must pay part or all of the cost of permanent benefits in order to obtain group-term life insurance.

A permanent benefit is an economic value extending beyond 1 policy year for example, a paid-up or cash-surrender value that is provided under a life insurance policy. Even if you don't meet the employee rule, two exceptions allow you to treat insurance as group-term life insurance. Under the first exception, you don't have to meet the employee rule if all the following conditions are met.

If evidence that the employee is insurable is required, it is limited to a medical questionnaire completed by the employee that doesn't require a physical. You provide the insurance to all your full-time employees or, if the insurer requires the evidence mentioned in 1 , to all full-time employees who provide evidence the insurer accepts.

You figure the coverage based on either a uniform percentage of pay or the insurer's coverage brackets that meet certain requirements. Under the second exception, you don't have to meet the employee rule if all the following conditions are met. You provide the insurance under a common plan covering your employees and the employees of at least one other employer who isn't related to you.

The insurance is restricted to, but mandatory for, all your employees who belong to, or are represented by, an organization such as a union that carries on substantial activities besides obtaining insurance. Evidence of whether an employee is insurable doesn't affect an employee's eligibility for insurance or the amount of insurance that employee gets. To apply either exception, don't consider employees who were denied insurance for any of the following reasons.

They customarily work 20 hours or less a week or 5 months or less in a calendar year. They haven't been employed for the waiting period given in the policy. This waiting period can't be more than 6 months. You can exclude the same amount from the employee's wages when figuring social security and Medicare taxes. In addition, you don't have to withhold federal income tax or pay FUTA tax on any group-term life insurance you provide to an employee.

Report it as wages in boxes 1, 3, and 5 of the employee's Form W Also, show it in box 12 with code "C. For all coverage provided within the calendar year, use the employee's age on the last day of the employee's tax year. You must prorate the cost from the table if less than a full month of coverage is involved. You must, however, pay the employer share of social security and Medicare taxes. Use the table above to determine the amount of additional income that is subject to social security and Medicare taxes for coverage provided after separation from service.

Report the uncollected amounts separately in box 12 of Form W-2 using codes "M" and "N. Generally, if your group-term life insurance plan favors key employees as to participation or benefits, you must include the entire cost of the insurance in your key employees' wages.

This exception generally doesn't apply to church plans. When figuring social security and Medicare taxes, you must also include the entire cost in the employees' wages. Include the cost in boxes 1, 3, and 5 of Form W However, you don't have to withhold federal income tax or pay FUTA tax on the cost of any group-term life insurance you provide to an employee. For this purpose, the cost of the insurance is the greater of the following amounts. The premiums you pay for the employee's insurance.

For this exclusion, a key employee during is an employee or former employee who is one of the following individuals. See section i of the Internal Revenue Code for more information. A former employee who was a key employee upon retirement or separation from service is also a key employee. Your plan doesn't favor key employees as to participation if at least one of the following is true.

It benefits employees who qualify under a set of rules you set up that don't favor key employees. Your plan meets this participation test if it is part of a cafeteria plan discussed earlier in section 1 and it meets the participation test for those plans. When applying this test, don't consider employees who:.

Are nonresident aliens who receive no U. Your plan doesn't favor key employees as to benefits if all benefits available to participating key employees are also available to all other participating employees. Your plan doesn't favor key employees just because the amount of insurance you provide to your employees is uniformly related to their pay.

A health savings account HSA is an account owned by a qualified individual who is generally your employee or former employee. Any contributions that you make to an HSA become the employee's property and can't be withdrawn by you. Contributions to the account are used to pay current or future medical expenses of the account owner, his or her spouse, and any qualified dependent.

The medical expenses must not be reimbursable by insurance or other sources and their payment from HSA funds distribution won't give rise to a medical expense deduction on the individual's federal income tax return.

A qualified individual must be covered by a High Deductible Health Plan HDHP and not be covered by other health insurance except for permitted insurance listed under section c 3 or insurance for accidents, disability, dental care, vision care, long-term care, or in the case of plan years beginning on or before December 31, telehealth and other remote care.

There are no income limits that restrict an individual's eligibility to contribute to an HSA nor is there a requirement that the account owner have earned income to make a contribution. An individual isn't a qualified individual if he or she can be claimed as a dependent on another person's tax return.

Also, an employee's participation in a health FSA or health reimbursement arrangement HRA generally disqualifies the individual and employer from making contributions to his or her HSA. For more information, see Other employee health plans in Pub. Up to specified dollar limits, cash contributions to the HSA of a qualified individual determined monthly are exempt from federal income tax withholding, social security tax, Medicare tax, and FUTA tax if you reasonably believe that the employee can exclude the benefits from gross income.

Your contribution amount to an employee's HSA must be comparable for all employees who have comparable coverage during the same period. For guidance on employer comparable contributions to HSAs under section G in instances where an employee hasn't established an HSA by December 31 and in instances where an employer accelerates contributions for the calendar year for employees who have incurred qualified medical expenses, see Regulations section The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of allows employers to make larger HSA contributions for a nonhighly compensated employee than for a highly compensated employee.

A highly compensated employee for is an employee who meets either of the following tests. You may contribute to an employee's HSA using a cafeteria plan and your contributions aren't subject to the statutory comparability rules. However, cafeteria plan nondiscrimination rules still apply.

For example, contributions under a cafeteria plan to employee HSAs can't be greater for higher-paid employees than they are for lower-paid employees. Contributions that favor lower-paid employees aren't prohibited.

You can exclude the value of lodging you furnish to an employee from the employee's wages if it meets the following tests. The exclusion also doesn't apply to cash allowances for lodging. For this exclusion, your business premises is generally your employee's place of work. For example, if you're a household employer, then lodging furnished in your home to a household employee would be considered lodging furnished on your business premises.

For special rules that apply to lodging furnished in a camp located in a foreign country, see section c of the Internal Revenue Code and its regulations.

Whether or not you furnish lodging for your convenience as an employer depends on all the facts and circumstances. You furnish the lodging to your employee for your convenience if you do this for a substantial business reason other than to provide the employee with additional pay. This is true even if a law or an employment contract provides that the lodging is furnished as pay. However, a written statement that the lodging is furnished for your convenience isn't sufficient. Lodging meets this test if you require your employees to accept the lodging because they need to live on your business premises to be able to properly perform their duties.

Examples include employees who must be available at all times and employees who couldn't perform their required duties without being furnished the lodging. It doesn't matter whether you must furnish the lodging as pay under the terms of an employment contract or a law fixing the terms of employment. You employ Sam at a construction project at a remote job site in Alaska.

Due to the inaccessibility of facilities for the employees who are working at the job site to obtain lodging and the prevailing weather conditions, you furnish lodging to your employees at the construction site in order to carry on the construction project.

You require that your employees accept the lodging as a condition of their employment. You may exclude the lodging that you provide from Sam's wages.

A hospital gives Joan, an employee of the hospital, the choice of living at the hospital free of charge or living elsewhere and receiving a cash allowance in addition to her regular salary.

If Joan chooses to live at the hospital, the hospital can't exclude the value of the lodging from her wages because she isn't required to live at the hospital to properly perform the duties of her employment.

This section discusses the exclusion rules that apply to de minimis meals and meals on your business premises. You can exclude any occasional meal you provide to an employee if it has so little value taking into account how frequently you provide meals to your employees that accounting for it would be unreasonable or administratively impracticable. The exclusion applies, for example, to the following items.

Occasional meals or meal money provided to enable an employee to work overtime. For this exclusion, treat any recipient of a de minimis meal as an employee.

The de minimis meals exclusion also applies to meals you provide at an employer-operated eating facility for employees if the annual revenue from the facility equals or exceeds the direct operating costs of the facility. Direct operating costs include the cost of food, beverages, and labor costs including employment taxes of employees whose services relating to the facility are performed primarily on the premises of the eating facility.

Therefore, for example, the labor costs attributable to cooks, waiters, and waitresses are included in direct operating costs, but the labor cost attributable to a manager of an eating facility whose services aren't primarily performed on the premises of the eating facility aren't included in direct operating costs. For this purpose, your revenue from providing a meal is considered equal to the facility's direct operating costs to provide that meal if its value can be excluded from an employee's wages as explained under Meals on Your Business Premises , later.

If you provide free or discounted meals to volunteers at a hospital and you can reasonably determine the number of meals you provide, then you may disregard these costs and revenues.

If you charge nonemployees a greater amount than employees, then you must disregard all costs and revenues attributable to these nonemployees. An employer-operated eating facility for employees is an eating facility that meets all the following conditions. You operate the facility. You provide meals food, drinks, and related services at the facility during, or immediately before or after, the employee's workday. You can generally exclude the value of de minimis meals you provide to an employee from the employee's wages.

You can't exclude from the wages of a highly compensated employee the value of a meal provided at an employer-operated eating facility that isn't available on the same terms to one of the following groups. Section of P. For more information, see chapter 2 of Pub. While your business deduction may be limited, the fringe benefit exclusion rules still apply and the de minimis fringe benefits may be excluded from your employee's wages, as discussed earlier.

You can exclude the value of meals you furnish to an employee from the employee's wages if they meet the following tests. The exclusion also doesn't apply to cash allowances for meals.

Generally, for this exclusion, the employee's place of work is your business premises. Whether you furnish meals for your convenience as an employer depends on all the facts and circumstances. You furnish the meals to your employee for your convenience if you do this for a substantial business reason other than to provide the employee with additional pay.

This is true even if a law or an employment contract provides that the meals are furnished as pay. However, a written statement that the meals are furnished for your convenience isn't sufficient. Meals excluded for all employees if excluded for more than half. If more than half of your employees who are furnished meals on your business premises are furnished the meals for your convenience, you can treat all meals you furnish to employees on your business premises as furnished for your convenience.

Meals you furnish to a restaurant or other food service employee during, or immediately before or after, the employee's working hours are furnished for your convenience. For example, if a waitress works during the breakfast and lunch periods, you can exclude from her wages the value of the breakfast and lunch you furnish in your restaurant for each day she works.

You operate a restaurant business. You furnish your employee, Carol, who is a waitress working 7 a. You encourage but don't require Carol to have her breakfast on the business premises before starting work. She must have her lunch on the premises.

Since Carol is a food service employee and works during the normal breakfast and lunch periods, you can exclude from her wages the value of her breakfast and lunch.

If you also allow Carol to have meals on your business premises without charge on her days off, you can't exclude the value of those meals from her wages. Meals you furnish during working hours so an employee will be available for emergency calls during the meal period are furnished for your convenience.

You must be able to show these emergency calls have occurred or can reasonably be expected to occur, and that the calls have resulted, or will result, in you calling on your employees to perform their jobs during their meal period. A hospital maintains a cafeteria on its premises where all of its employees may get meals at no charge during their working hours.

The hospital must have of its employees available for emergencies. Each of these employees is, at times, called upon to perform services during the meal period. Although the hospital doesn't require these employees to remain on the premises, they rarely leave the hospital during their meal period. Since the hospital furnishes meals on its premises to its employees so that more than half of them are available for emergency calls during meal periods, the hospital can exclude the value of these meals from the wages of all of its employees.

Meals you furnish during working hours are furnished for your convenience if the nature of your business not merely a preference restricts an employee to a short meal period such as 30 or 45 minutes and the employee can't be expected to eat elsewhere in such a short time.

For example, meals can qualify for this treatment if your peak workload occurs during the normal lunch hour. However, they don't qualify if the reason for the short meal period is to allow the employee to leave earlier in the day. Frank is a bank teller who works from 9 a. The bank furnishes his lunch without charge in a cafeteria the bank maintains on its premises.

The bank furnishes these meals to Frank to limit his lunch period to 30 minutes, because the bank's peak workload occurs during the normal lunch period.

If Frank got his lunch elsewhere, it would take him much longer than 30 minutes and the bank strictly enforces the time limit. The bank can exclude the value of these meals from Frank's wages. Meals you furnish during working hours are furnished for your convenience if the employee couldn't otherwise get proper meals within a reasonable period of time.

For example, meals can qualify for this treatment if there are insufficient eating facilities near the place of employment. For an example of this, see Example of qualifying lodging , earlier in this section.

However, meals you furnish to an employee immediately after working hours are furnished for your convenience if you would have furnished them during working hours for a substantial nonpay business reason but, because of the work duties, they weren't obtained during working hours. Meals you furnish to promote goodwill, boost morale, or attract prospective employees. Meals you furnish to promote goodwill, boost morale, or attract prospective employees aren't considered furnished for your convenience.

However, you may be able to exclude their value as discussed under De Minimis Meals , earlier. You generally can't exclude from an employee's wages the value of meals you furnish on a day when the employee isn't working. Show print controls. Fringe benefits tax FBT A fringe benefit is a 'payment' to an employee, but in a different form to salary or wages.

For fringe benefits tax FBT purposes, an employee includes a: current, future or past employee director of a company beneficiary of a trust who works in the business. Examples of fringe benefits include: allowing an employee to use a work car for private purposes giving an employee a discounted loan paying an employee's gym membership providing entertainment by way of free tickets to concerts reimbursing an expense incurred by an employee, such as school fees giving benefits under a salary sacrifice arrangement with an employee.

That's because the risk to the insurance company is spread across many different people. Most employers actually offer this type of insurance for free. Although term life only covers you up to a certain age, you may be able to extend coverage terms and get more for your beneficiaries for a few extra dollars a month. Just like health and dental insurance, this is pretax. Some companies offer matches on employee k paycheck deferrals, while others make qualified contributions to retirement plans without requiring employees to make contributions themselves.

These plans can be powerful tools in saving for the long-term and provide compensation to employees above and beyond their salaries. These plans are commonly known as pension plans. These plans pay employees a specific benefit amount after they retire based on their years of service and annual salary. Plans are administered by investment managers hired by the employer. Unlike individual plans, it's the employer who takes on the risk with a group-defined benefit or pension plan.

Employees can contribute a specific amount of their salary on a pretax basis to this type of plan. Since it is optional, employees are responsible to administer and monitor the plan, which means they must evaluate the risks associated with their investment decisions.

Some employers may also match employee contributions to the plan. As with the other plan, deductions are pretax. But the payout is based on how much was contributed over the term of employment, in addition to any gains or losses. Employees must allow certain contributions to be vested before they can make any withdrawals from employer-sponsored retirement plans.

Vesting gives employees full access to specific assets after a certain period of time. This vesting period normally applies to employer contributions. Companies do this to keep their workers from leaving to pursue opportunities elsewhere. For instance, a company may require contributions to a defined contribution plan to vest for five years before an employee can access them. If you decide to leave before that period, you forfeit the right to any unvested contributions.

You may be able to negotiate certain fringe benefits with your employer even if they're not offered. It's always a good idea to ask, especially if it helps the company. Childcare assistance is another benefit offered through some employers, as working full-time with children can present scheduling conflicts and prohibitive daycare costs. Some larger employers offer employees dependent care on-site, either at a discount or for no cost.

Smaller companies may provide a monthly bonus to employees for the specific purpose of paying for dependent care. Other companies can offer dependent benefits to employees by allowing them to contribute to a plan on a pretax basis.

Along with nonfinancial perks and your salary, you may be entitled to bonus compensation. This is a financial award that is above and beyond anything else that your employer provides. Most companies pay bonuses at the end of the year and some may even provide new hires with a signing bonus when they're first recruited. Bonuses are commonly paid if you meet certain targets. For instance, if you work in a sales department and your team meets your monthly quota , your company may pay each member a bonus.

If you meet your individual target, you may be paid an even bigger bonus at the end of the term. Keep in mind, though, that bonuses are considered taxable income , so income taxes are deducted and you have to report the amount on your annual tax return. Another common fringe benefit is education assistance or tuition reimbursement for college courses or the completion of an advanced degree program.

Employers offering education assistance may allow employees to work flexible schedules so they can balance their education and work obligations. Employees may also be provided tuition reimbursement for all or part of the expenses. For larger employers with ample space, access to an on-site fitness center is a common fringe benefit to employees.

Smaller employers may also offer gym memberships at a discount or a fitness equipment reimbursement up to a certain limit each year. Meals or discounted cafeteria plans may also be offered to employees as fringe benefits. Employers recognize that the cost of lunch or dinners when employees work late can add up quickly and, as such, meals are provided by some employers at no cost to the employee.

Having downtime away from work is crucial for every employee. That's why employers almost always include paid time off in employee contracts. This allows workers to get some much-needed time away from work, whether that's to take a vacation or to just rest at home, and still receive pay. The more time you spend working for your employer, the more off you'll likely receive with pay. Your employer may also provide you with paid time off for other circumstances such as family emergencies, funerals, childcare, maternity, and paternity leave.

Some fringe benefits come in the form of reduced prices on goods and services. Often, workers can get employee discounts on products that their company or one of its subsidiaries makes. Some employers provide staffers with cell phones, and cell phone providers offer corporate discounts on their plans to certain large companies. Museums and cultural institutions might offer free admission to employees whose firms are major donors or event sponsors, too. In terms of lifestyle, some firms reimburse employees for commuting or moving expenses.

They might provide daycare services or assistance with care for dependents. Financially, employee stock options are a key fringe benefit. Firms give workers shares in corporate stock outright or the chance to buy at a discounted price. Fringe benefits may or may not be taken out of an employee's salary—it all depends on the type of benefit.

For instance, benefits like health insurance, contributions to a retirement plan, or dependent care are deducted from your gross salary. Other perks may be offered to employees for free, such as access to a gym at the office or discounts for things like car and homeowners insurance or vehicle rentals.

Fringe benefits that are considered taxable income, such as bonuses, are taxed as regular income.