Is personal income tax withheld and paid on sick leave?
The answer to the question of whether sick leave is subject to personal income tax is contained in paragraph 1 of Art.
217 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Temporary disability benefits are excluded from the list of payments not subject to personal income tax. Since the document confirming the employee’s incapacity for work is a certificate of incapacity for work, personal income tax is calculated from the sick leave. Let us recall payments that are not subject to personal income tax (Clause 1, Article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation):
- lump sum maternity benefit;
- monthly allowance for child care up to 1.5 years;
- monthly compensation for child care up to 3 years old.
A ready-made solution from ConsultantPlus will help you calculate and pay sick leave to employees, including in unusual and difficult situations. Get trial access to the K+ system and immediately see expert recommendations. It's free.
Is sick leave subject to personal income tax?
The concept of income tax (personal income tax) is known to everyone who has worked for hire or paid for the work of their staff. For an employee, the salary amount specified in the employment contract and the amount received at the cash desk do not match. The difference is a tax that is withheld from employees' income by their employer and transferred to the budget.
And if an employee gets sick and receives a certificate of incapacity for work, then sick leave payments will not be earnings, but benefits. Both the employee and the employer may not know whether sick leave payments are taxable.
Chapter 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation clearly defines from what types of income the employer withholds personal income tax. Here, sick pay is considered income, so the recipient must pay personal income tax on the amount of sick leave. If a person is officially employed by a company or individual entrepreneur, then he himself will not pay personal income tax on sick leave, as well as on wages. The employer is required to charge taxes and pay money to the treasury. He acts as a tax agent for the employee.
So, the employer withholds personal income tax from sick leave. However, the taxation procedure for this type of income does not differ from the rules for withholding taxes from wages. Sick leave payments are taxed at the same rate of 13%.
Let us clarify in what cases the employer will deduct 13% tax from sick leave and transfer it to the budget. According to Russian legislation, personal income tax from sick leave must be withheld:
- if a person gets sick and the doctor gives him a certificate of incapacity for work;
- if the reason for receiving sick leave is injury;
- if there is a need to care for an employee’s sick child or another seriously ill family member.
A certificate of incapacity for work is issued to a sick employee as an excuse for absence from work, as well as to calculate the amount of benefits.
Is maternity sick leave subject to personal income tax?
Should personal income tax always be withheld from sick leave? It is important that there is only one exception here: Art. 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation exempts sick leave for pregnancy and childbirth (maternity leave) from deduction. Although formally a separate document is not provided for maternity leave and the benefit is issued with a standard certificate of incapacity for work, personal income tax is not assessed on this type of income.
Sick leave, which is commonly called “maternity leave,” is generally accrued for 140 calendar days (70 days before childbirth and 70 after childbirth). But in some cases, such a certificate of incapacity for work can be issued for a longer period (for example, at the birth of two or more children).
When adopting children under three months of age, a sick leave certificate is also issued for a duration equal to postpartum leave for the birth of their own children. Income tax is also not withheld from this benefit for adoptive parents.
Is personal income tax withheld from additional payments up to average earnings when paying for a certificate of incapacity for work?
When paying for sick leave, its amount is not always equal to the employee’s actual average earnings. They may differ significantly.
The level of payment for the time spent on sick leave is determined in Art. 7 of Law No. 255-FZ of December 29, 2006, depending on the employee’s insurance length (i.e., in fact, on how much the person has worked in official employment during his life):
- insurance experience of 8 or more years - 100 percent of average earnings;
- insurance experience from 5 to 8 years - 80 percent of average earnings;
- insurance period up to 5 years - 60 percent of average earnings.
If a person’s total insurance experience does not exceed 6 months, sick leave will be paid based on the average daily minimum wage.
It must be borne in mind that although sick leave is paid from the employee’s average earnings, the daily accrual of benefits should be limited to a maximum amount (Part 3.2 of Article 14 of the Law of December 29, 2006 No. 255-FZ). For those employees whose actual average daily earnings are above the limit, the amount of sick leave calculated taking into account the procedure established by law will be less than the amount calculated from the average earnings of such an employee.
The maximum daily benefit for sick leave in 2021 was as follows:
- up to 5 years of experience - 1140.82 rubles. (1388000 / 730 * 60%);
- experience from 5 to 8 years - 1521.10 rubles. (1388000 / 730 * 80%);
- 8 years of experience or more, as well as when calculating daily maternity benefits - 1901.37 rubles. (1388000 / 730 * 100%).
Some employers from their own funds make additional payments up to the average salary for sick leave of their staff. The procedure for additional payment can be established in the employee’s employment contract or provided for in the collective agreement of the organization. Since such additional payments are not an obligation, but a right of the employer, he independently establishes:
- to whom additional payments will be made (not necessarily to all employees);
- what is the procedure for calculating and the amount of additional payment.
The employer should withhold personal income tax from additional payments to employees in the usual manner.
Additional payments up to average earnings to sick leave benefits are considered the employee’s ordinary income, therefore they are subject to personal income tax in the standard manner
Deadline for payment of personal income tax on sick leave
The employer must accrue sick leave benefits no later than 10 days from the day the employee presented the certificate of incapacity for work. The employer pays the accrued benefit to the employee simultaneously with the next salary.
From the accrued sick leave (if it is not sick leave for pregnancy and childbirth), the employer must withhold and transfer personal income tax to the treasury. The deadline for paying each specific tax is established by law. The employer must transfer personal income tax from sick leave to the treasury no later than on the last working day of the month in which the employee was paid sick leave benefits (Article 226 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
If the last day of the month is a holiday, the deadline for transferring personal income tax is postponed to the next working day in the next month.
The last day of December 2021 is Sunday. Therefore, personal income tax on sick leave paid in December 2021 can be paid to the treasury on 01/09/2018.
Video: deadlines for transferring personal income tax from sick leave
Is income tax taken from sick leave in 2020-2021 or not?
Are sick leave subject to personal income tax? Yes, and the personal income tax rate for this type of payment has not changed: in 2020-2021, as before, it is 13%.
Since sick leave is subject to personal income tax, the tax base for calculation is the amount of temporary disability benefits in full (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated June 17, 2009 No. 03-04-06-01/139).
Important! Starting from 2021, the employer accrues and pays sick leave only for the first 3 days and only pays personal income tax from this amount. The remaining portion of the benefit is paid directly to the employee by the Social Insurance Fund. He also withholds personal income tax from her. In cases where the FSS issues 100% of the benefit, it withholds tax from the entire amount. For more details, see our memo on the new rules for paying benefits from 2021.
Accountants sometimes have doubts whether to withhold personal income tax from sick leave as when assessing wages, or are there differences? Please note that deductions here are carried out in a special manner, different from deductions from an employee’s salary.
The difference is that sick pay is included in taxable income in the month of payment (clause 1 of Article 223 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). There are also differences in the procedure for paying personal income tax from sick leave to the budget. But more on that below.
In business practice, there are circumstances in which employees working at the enterprise fell ill after concluding civil contracts with them. A reasonable question arose: is personal income tax paid on sick leave for such employees? It should be borne in mind that employees with whom civil contracts have been concluded should not be paid sick leave. Accordingly, there is no need to accrue or pay personal income tax.
Changes in the insurance period
Currently, the Ministry of Labor is developing proposals to increase the insurance period. According to the Bill, it is planned to increase the minimum insurance period for payment of benefits at a rate of 100% - up to 15 years instead of 8; for payment of 80% - up to 8-15 years instead of 5-8; for payment of 60% - up to 8 years instead of 5. The increase in terms will occur gradually: by approximately 6 months. annually to complete changes by 2029.
Conclusion - sick leave is subject to personal income tax in 2021 in accordance with the general procedure. The main difference from regular salary payments is that the tax must be transferred before the last day of the calendar month in which the benefit was paid. In reporting, personal income tax amounts should be reflected in forms 2-NDFL and 6-NDFL, income code – 2300.
What period and date of personal income tax withholding are established for sick leave and vacation pay?
The deadline for paying sick leave tax is no later than the last day of the month in which the benefit was paid.
The withheld personal income tax must be shown in the 6-NDFL report. ConsultantPlus experts explained how to determine the date of actual receipt of sick leave income for calculating 6-NDFL. Get free demo access to K+ and go to the Ready Solution to find out all the details of this procedure.
By the way, a similar procedure and payment deadline is provided for personal income tax on vacation pay: the tax should be withheld and transferred to the budget no later than the last day of the month when the vacation pay was issued.
About the deadline for paying personal income tax
How to calculate disability benefits?
First of all, you need to know how much an employee earns on average per day, as well as the percentage of length of service.
The amount of benefits is calculated in several stages:
- First of all, it is necessary to calculate the employee’s average daily earnings for the last 2 years. To do this, divide the total amount of payments by the number of days worked over 2 years.
- At the second stage, it is necessary to calculate the total payment amount. To do this, multiply the number of days of incapacity by the average daily earnings. The resulting product must be multiplied by a percentage in accordance with the experience table.
- Finally, in the last step, you need to calculate 13% as tax from the benefit. This procedure is carried out in the company’s accounting department within 10 days from the date of submission of sick leave.
There are cases when an employee has no experience at all and has just graduated from college, or a woman returned to work after maternity leave. Accordingly, the previous 2 years were not labor years, which means the minimum wage is taken into account.
Among other things, it is necessary to take into account that along with the minimum payments there is a maximum mark. So, in order to calculate the maximum, it is necessary to calculate the amount paid to the social service fund. This amount cannot exceed 624,000 rubles for 2014 and 670,000 rubles for 2015.
We get:
(624,000 + 670,000): 730 = 1,772.6 rubles per day.
According to this, the minimum daily earnings can be 203.97 rubles.
Temporary disability benefit – personal income tax and additional payment up to average earnings
If, when calculating temporary disability benefits, an additional payment is made up to average earnings, then the corresponding personal income tax on sick leave is paid in the general manner (Articles 217, 226 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Both officials and judges came to this conclusion (letters from the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 05/06/2009 No. 03-03-06/1/299, dated 02/12/2009 No. 03-03-06/1/60, dated 12/24/2008 No. 03- 03-06/1/720, resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the North-Western District dated 07.07.2008 No. A26-2542/2007).
Thus, to the question posed at the beginning of the article, whether personal income tax is withheld from sick leave, the answer will be unequivocal: undoubtedly, yes.
What determines the amount of payments?
First of all, the amount of sick leave paid directly depends on the employee’s length of service. Today, there is a special table from which you can determine the amount of interest accrual. Another condition for the size of the benefit is the fact that it should not exceed the average earnings.
However, the amount of benefits will not always be calculated at a rate of 100% of average earnings.
Results
Payment for sick leave, with the exception of maternity benefits, is subject to personal income tax, regardless of the source of its payment (employer or Social Insurance Fund).
The employer's personal income tax on sick leave benefits must be withheld upon payment and transferred to the budget no later than the last day of the month in which the benefits were paid. When paying benefits for sick days, starting from the 4th day, the Social Insurance Fund will withhold and transfer it to the budget independently. You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.
Features of the reflection of information in the personal income tax certificate-2
Currently (in 2021) there is a form of certificate of income for individuals, which was approved by the order of the Federal Tax Service No. ММВ-7-11/485 dated October 30, 2015. Despite the fact that most often “sickness” compensation is paid simultaneously with wages, The documentation will indicate different numbers:
- for salary (column code 2000) – the last day of the month of its accrual;
- for compensation (column code 2300) – the day it is accrued.
For example, in October 2021, an employee was sick for 5 days, from October 25 to October 29. Part of his salary for October, along with sickness benefits, was paid to him on November 10. The personal income tax certificate will show 2 different dates, because salary income is legally considered to be received in November, and sick leave income is considered to be received in October, although the money will be received on the same day.
