Most German benefits budgets have one line in them: 50 euros of Sachbezug per head per month, usually loaded onto a voucher card. Then an employee’s father dies, and there is nothing in the catalogue that fits that week.
German tax law has a second instrument for exactly this, and most benefits overviews leave it out: a tax-free hardship payment under R 3.11 Abs. 2 LStR, up to 600 euros per calendar year, sitting outside the monthly allowance. We recommend budgeting the two lines separately and settling the second one while no case is open.
The 50-euro Sachbezug allowance is a monthly all-or-nothing threshold
The Sachbezug allowance under § 8 Abs. 2 Satz 11 EStG stands unchanged at 50 euros per employee per month in 2026, and a single cent over the line makes that month’s entire Sachbezug taxable and subject to social security contributions.
Everything received in the same calendar month counts toward it, whatever department it came from. The card issued centrally, and the fuel voucher a site manager hands out on the spot are added together. Two formal conditions sit alongside the number: the benefit must come on top of wages already owed (§ 8 Abs. 4 EStG), and vouchers or prepaid cards must meet the criteria in § 2 Abs. 1 Nr. 10 ZAG.
You could start by setting the internal ceiling at 45 euros and naming one person in payroll who signs off anything landing in that column. The five euros of headroom cost 60 euros per employee per year and absorb the case that actually breaks the threshold in practice: the well-meant one-off that payroll only hears about afterwards.
Hardship payments of up to 600 euros a year sit outside the monthly allowance
Private employers in Germany can pay employees up to 600 euros per calendar year tax-free in cases of illness, birth, death or accident under R 3.11 Abs. 2 LStR, and that amount does not count toward the 50-euro Sachbezug allowance.
Anything above 600 euros stays outside taxable pay only where a particular emergency exists, taking the employee’s income and family circumstances into account. Actual or impending unemployment is explicitly excluded as such an emergency (R 3.11 Abs. 2 Satz 6 LStR). If the business employs fewer than five people, the formal conditions in Satz 2 fall away entirely.
Above that headcount, the tax-free treatment depends on one of three constructions: payment through a body funded by the employer but independent of it, payment by the works council from funds the employer provides, or approval by the employer after consulting the works council or under uniform principles the works council has agreed to.
Put those principles in writing during a quiet month, with a named list of triggering events, a fixed amount, and one person who releases it. The reason is mechanical. Consulting the works council and agreeing uniform principles cannot be reconstructed retroactively in the week you need them. Where the amount in an individual case is uncertain, a binding ruling (Anrufungsauskunft) from the Finanzamt is available.
Benefits built for rare events lose every comparison based on usage rates
A benefit aimed at a rare event fails any assessment based on monthly usage rates, because in a normal month its usage is zero.
A voucher card wins that comparison every time. It gets spent monthly, it is interchangeable with salary, and it stops mattering the month it stops arriving. An instrument for a Sterbefall might be drawn by two percent of a workforce in a year, and for those people it shapes how they see the employer for years afterwards.
Judge this budget line by whether it holds up in the worst month of an employee’s year, and filing it in your planning next to accident insurance rather than inside the benefits catalogue. Nobody asks for the usage rate on accident insurance, and the reasoning is identical.
Money on its own does not carry the weeks after a Sterbefall
After a death in the immediate family, the absence an employer actually feels falls in the weeks after the leave ends, when the Standesamt, the bank, the insurer, the pension authority and the probate court all have to be reached during office hours.
A transfer covers funeral costs. It does not remove a single one of those appointments. This is the phase where short-notice absences cluster and the return to work stretches out.
It’s best not to pay the hardship amount on its own. Pair it with paid time and a named contact inside the company, so nobody has to explain the same situation to four different people.
💡 On the leave itself: Bereavement leave in Germany
Where Meolea fits across these two lines
Meolea gives employees a guided sequence of everything that has to happen after a Sterbefall, with deadlines specific to the Bundesland, which takes HR out of the role of unofficial advice desk on estate questions.
Before any case arises, the emphasis is on Vorsorge: documents, responsibilities, the emergency folder and trusted contacts are recorded before anyone goes looking for them. On the employer side there is a dashboard covering seats and activations, plus templates for HR when an employee chooses to disclose what is going on.
Commercially this maps onto the same two lines. The recurring Sachbezug position sits at roughly 12.50 euros a month, around a quarter of the allowance, leaving the rest for benefits you already run. The activation in an acute case is billed per event, which puts it in the same category as the hardship payment. How the Sachbezug position should be classified in your company is something we work through with your own Steuerberater before any contract is signed.
What you can settle this week
Pull one month from payroll and look at the actual Sachbezug total per head. In most companies it sits below the threshold and nobody knows the figure. Then write three sentences about hardship support: which events, what amount, who releases it.
For the second line, write to us. In a 20-minute conversation, we go through your current benefits structure and show which parts of it hold up in an acute case. You come away with an overview your tax advisor can review, whether or not Meolea turns out to fit.
Frequently asked questions
Does a hardship payment after a death count toward the 50-euro Sachbezug allowance?
No. Tax-free treatment of support in cases of illness, birth, death and accident follows R 3.11 Abs. 2 LStR and is independent of the Sachbezug allowance under § 8 Abs. 2 Satz 11 EStG. The classification for your specific company still belongs with your Steuerberater before anything is paid out.
How much hardship support is tax-free, and what applies above 600 euros?
Up to 600 euros per calendar year per employee stays tax-free without further examination. Above that, only where a particular emergency exists, with the employee’s income and family circumstances taken into account. If you are unsure about the amount, you can request an Anrufungsauskunft from the Finanzamt.
What extra conditions apply to companies with five or more employees?
The formal conditions in R 3.11 Abs. 2 Satz 2 LStR only fall away for businesses employing fewer than five people. Above that you need an independent body, payment by the works council from funds you provide, or approval after consulting the works council. This is the part to settle in advance.
Can we run several Sachbezug benefits alongside each other?
Yes, as long as the total across a calendar month stays at or below 50 euros. Because they are added together, somebody in the company needs to know the monthly figure per head. Without that, the threshold eventually breaks through a one-off nobody told payroll about.
Is a separate budget line for a Sterbefall worth it at eighty employees?
At that size several people are affected every year, at varying degrees of closeness. The difference lies less in the individual case than in whether a rule exists or every case gets negotiated from scratch. The written rule is the first step and the budget is the second.