An employee can save between £600 and £2,500 per year with a flexible remuneration plan, according to your gross salary, your marginal income tax bracket and the products you allocate to the plan. Savings are made because the amounts allocated to products exempt from personal income tax (Ticket Restaurant, transport, childcare, health insurance, training) are deducted from gross salary before calculating income tax withholding on payslips.
In this article, we show two concrete examples with gross annual salaries of €24,000 and €30,000, we break down the calculation step by step and explain how savings vary according to the employee's profile and the chosen products. You can also calculate your personalised savings with the official calculator.
Saving depends on three factors: the amount intended for the plan, the IRPF marginal rate of the employee and the Chosen products. The basic formula is simple: for every euro spent on a product exempt from income tax, the employee stops paying the withholding tax corresponding to their marginal rate.
For example, an employee in the 30% tax bracket who contributes €4,000 to the scheme can save approximately £1,200 per year in income tax. If the marginal tax rate is 24.1%, the saving on the same amount would be around €960.
Flexible remuneration allows you to allocate up to 30% of gross annual salary – as established by Article 42 of Law 35/2006 on Personal Income Tax – to exempt products such as Ticket Restaurant, Edenred Guardería, Edenred Mobility, Health Insurance or Training. The actual savings for each employee depend on their specific profile, as we will see in the following two examples.
To illustrate how flexible remuneration impacts personal finances, we present two examples that show how outcomes vary according to each professional's profile and priorities:
These examples demonstrate how flexible remuneration adapts to each person's needs and priorities, maximising their economic benefits.
Note: Calculations are didactic approximations based on your marginal income tax bracket. Actual savings also depend on personal and family allowances, the current regional tax bracket, and other circumstances. For a personalised estimate, please use the Official savings calculator.
The basic formula is:
Annual saving ≈ Amount allocated to scheme × Marginal income tax band
The calculation is made at marginal section, not to the average employee retention type. This is because the amounts allocated to the plan reduce the taxable base from the last euro downwardsthey leave the highest bracket in which the employee is taxed.
The marginal income tax bands in Spain are:
Para que la fórmula sea válida, el importe destinado al plan debe to fit within the employee's marginal band. If flexible remuneration reduces the tax base to the point where it falls into a lower tax bracket, part of the saving is calculated at the higher rate and part at the lower rate. This is what happens, for example, with employees whose gross salary is just over €20,200: small allowances are saved using 30%, whilst larger allowances can be saved by combining 30% and 24%.
In addition to the state tax band, each autonomous community applies its own regional tax band, which can modify the actual saving by between 1 and 3 percentage points. And the final calculation of the monthly withholding also takes into account Personal and family allowances (Family situation, children to support, disability). For this reason, the figure obtained with the basic formula is a useful didactic approximation for understanding the logic of saving, but for a personalised estimate, it is advisable to use the Edenred official calculator.
Human Resources professional with a solid track record in talent management and a strong commitment to optimising the employee value proposition. Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to develop my expertise in international environments and consulting firms, specialising in talent attraction and retention through advanced strategies such as flexible remuneration. Currently, as Key Account Manager (KAM) at Edenred, I collaborate closely with major clients to design and implement strategic compensation and benefits solutions that enhance corporate well-being and organisational engagement.
