Vouchers replace Christmas bonuses

Greek group Marinopoulos, which operates Marks & Spencer and Beauty Shop in Romania, and Turkish group Fiba, owner of the Gima supermarkets have launched a corporate voucher system, as part of a strategy to boost sales.
Instead of holiday bonuses, companies can distribute vouchers acquired from Marks & Spencer or Gima, enabling the employees to buy whatever they want from the respective stores.
“We have launched these vouchers because this is done all over the world and they enable us to give presents,” said Giorgos Bethavas, Marinopoulos country manager. “This promotion strategy is new to Romanians, so we are just testing the market,” Bethavas added. According to the Marinopoulos official, the company has sold Marks & Spencer vouchers worth $10,000 and 15,000 dollars’ worth of Beauty Shop vouchers to banking institutions, telecom companies, but also state-owned enterprises.
This is not Gima’s first time around vouchers. “We have decided to pay more attention to this activity this year, after we first tested it back in Turkey. Employers find it much more polite to give their employees vouchers instead of money in an envelope,” says Hakan Gun, Gima deputy marketing manager. “It is also better for the employees, since they get to choose the product they want and need,” the Gima official added.
Moreover, the voucher system also comes with tax perks. “The companies can grant such gifts and vacations to their employees, up to 1.5% of the salary fund. Whatever exceeds this limit is non-deductible, but, even so, managers may prefer vouchers to cash bonuses. Bonuses are deductible, saving 25% of the profit tax, but, since the income tax amounts to 40% and is joined by all the other dues, only 30 dollars are eventually left of a $100 bonus. “These methods are in fact a normal reaction to the high tax pressure on companies,” says Gabriel Biris, a consultant with Haarman Hemmelrath & Partner, a tax counselling and audit firm.