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Monday, 20 April 2020

My employees and/or directors are willing to temporary (partially) waive their salary to support the company. Are there any (negative) tax consequences to be taken into account?

Daan Buylaert

Daan Buylaert

Partner
Brussels
Mona Vera

Mona Vera

Associate
Brussels

Employees and directors may be asked to agree to a temporary renunciation of their wages considering liquidity challenges faced by many companies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such proposals have for instance been addressed to parliamentarians and sportsmen.

Before agreeing to this, one must be aware of the tax consequences. There is case law stating that ceding remuneration to another party (such as back to the employer), does not entail that the income is not considered as taxable income in the hands of the initial beneficiary. This would result in the fact that although the income is never actually received by the employees or directors, they may still be taxed on that income and the company/employer may have a withholding tax obligation.

It is possible to tackle this issue when well structured. Therefore, be well informed before entering into such an agreement!