In short and in plain language
Many care services give their staff something extra. For example a voucher, or money for the bus and train ticket. The website often just says: great extras. That tells job seekers very little.
It is better to name each benefit clearly. What is it? How much is it? Who gets it? When does it start?
The law sets a limit for vouchers. It applies to each month. Health courses have a limit for the whole year.
The pay slip shows if tax is due. The website does not promise that. It only says what you get.
We build this part of the careers page for you. Each benefit gets its own tile.
Many care job ads carry the phrase "attractive additional benefits". Applicants find nothing in it they could check or compare with another offer. Yet many home care services already pay for things that can be named precisely: a subsidy for the transit pass, a voucher card, a back health course, a childcare subsidy or a company car that may also be used privately. For benefits in kind, the German Income Tax Act draws a clear line: they are disregarded if together they do not exceed 50 euros per calendar month (EStG). This article shows how a care service describes its benefits on the careers page so that every statement carries an amount or a rule, stays verifiable and contains no tax promise that payroll cannot keep later. The turn of the year is a good moment for this: what the service offers in 2027 is being decided now anyway.
Key takeaways
- Under § 8 (2) sentence 11 EStG, benefits in kind are disregarded if together they do not exceed 50 euros per calendar month (EStG). The limit applies to all benefits in kind of a month combined, not to each benefit separately.
- Vouchers and prepaid cards only count as benefits in kind if they entitle the holder exclusively to goods or services, meet the criteria of the German Payment Services Supervision Act and are granted on top of the pay already owed.
- Transit pass (§ 3 No. 15), childcare subsidy (§ 3 No. 33), health courses up to 600 euros per calendar year (EStG) and training (§ 3 No. 19) follow their own rules. The careers page states amount, condition and review date for each.
- A company car for private use is a taxable benefit: 1 percent (EStG) of the domestic list price is recognized for each calendar month. That belongs openly on the page instead of presenting the car as free of charge.
- Among the surveyed nurses who had left the profession or worked part-time, 65.4 percent (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022) rated suitable childcare important or very important, and 89.1 percent (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022) said the same of binding rosters.
- The page promises neither "tax-free" nor "net equals gross" and refers to payroll for the treatment. Under the EU Pay Transparency Directive, benefits in kind count as pay; on the careers page they go directly below the salary information.
Why the slogan does not trigger an application
A nurse who wants to change jobs usually has several ads open at once. Many of them contain the same block: great team, fair pay, attractive additional benefits. Anyone still reading after the second ad is looking for the difference, and a slogan does not provide it. It leaves open whether this means a fuel card, a childcare subsidy or a fruit basket in the office, when the benefit starts and whether part-time staff receive it too. A statement that cannot be checked does not count in the comparison.
How much weight individual benefits carry is shown by the study "Ich pflege wieder, wenn …" ("I will go back to nursing if …") by Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen, the Institute for Work and Technology and the Saarland Chamber of Labor. In a nationwide survey in 2021 (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022), nurses who had left the profession or worked part-time were asked about the conditions for returning or working more hours. 65.4 percent (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022) rated suitable childcare important or very important, 74.4 percent (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022) said so of more continuing education and training opportunities, and 56.8 percent (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022) of funded mobility offers such as a transit pass, a company bike or private use of a company car. The sample is self-selected; the authors explicitly describe it as not representative.
The same study puts these figures in context. In the area of work-life balance, binding rosters come first at 89.1 percent (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022), ranked 8 out of 67 working conditions surveyed. Benefits therefore do not replace a reliable roster, they complement it. The arguments for that are in the article on reliable rosters as a careers page argument. For this article it means: the benefits sit below the roster and pay information on the careers page, not above them, and they are specific enough to hold up when compared with other ads.
Home care services have a second reason. On December 15, 2023, 446,425 people (Federal Statistical Office) worked in home care services, of whom 126,251 full-time (Federal Statistical Office), or around 28 percent (Federal Statistical Office). A service that mainly employs part-time staff states for every benefit whether it also applies part-time and whether it is paid pro rata. Without that sentence, the applicant asks in the interview, or does not apply at all. The comparison below shows what a concrete statement achieves compared with the slogan:
| Slogan | What stays unclear | Concrete statement on the careers page |
|---|---|---|
| Attractive additional benefits | which benefit, how much, from when | Voucher card worth [amount] euros a month, at most 50 euros, on top of the collectively agreed pay, from the first full month (§ 8 (2) sentence 11 EStG) |
| Mobility allowance | for bus and train or for the car | Subsidy of [amount] euros a month toward your Deutschlandticket, on top of pay |
| Health offers | course, subsidy or fruit basket | One certified back health course every six months during working hours, paid for by the service |
| Family-friendly | what happens when daycare closes | Childcare subsidy of [amount] euros per child and month until school age |
| Training possible | who pays, who grants time off | Training as a practice mentor: the service pays the fees, course days count as working time |
| Company car | only for the rounds or also private | Company car also for private use; the taxable benefit is taxed under the 1 percent rule |
Benefits in kind: 50 euros a month for everything combined
The key figure for voucher cards and similar benefits is in § 8 (2) sentence 11 EStG. The sentence governs two things at once: the amount of the exemption limit and an additional condition for vouchers and payment cards. It does not belong on the careers page word for word, but whoever writes the page should know it (German original):
Sachbezüge, die nach Satz 1 zu bewerten sind, bleiben außer Ansatz, wenn die sich nach Anrechnung der vom Steuerpflichtigen gezahlten Entgelte ergebenden Vorteile insgesamt 50 Euro im Kalendermonat nicht übersteigen; die nach Absatz 1 Satz 3 nicht zu den Einnahmen in Geld gehörenden Gutscheine und Geldkarten bleiben nur dann außer Ansatz, wenn sie zusätzlich zum ohnehin geschuldeten Arbeitslohn gewährt werden.
In plain English: benefits in kind valued under sentence 1 are disregarded if the advantages remaining after deducting what the employee pays together do not exceed 50 euros per calendar month; vouchers and payment cards are only disregarded if they are granted on top of the pay already owed. Four phrases matter for the careers page. "Together" means the 50 euros (EStG) apply to all benefits in kind of a month that are valued under sentence 1. Anyone who issues a 50-euro voucher card and grants a further benefit of that kind in the same month is above the limit. "Per calendar month" means the limit cannot be saved up over several months. "After deducting what the employee pays" means that only the remaining advantage counts if the employee contributes. And "do not exceed" makes the figure a limit, not an allowance: according to the wording, the advantages are only disregarded if they stay within it.
This leads to a practical rule for the design. Loading the voucher card exactly up to the limit leaves no room for other benefits in kind in the same month. Whether anything else is granted alongside it is clarified by payroll before the benefit starts, not by the careers page. The page states the amount the service actually loads and how often it does so.
Wording for the careers page
Vouchers and prepaid cards: what counts as a benefit in kind
A cash payment does not become a benefit in kind by being given another name. § 8 (1) sentence 2 EStG expressly counts earmarked cash payments, subsequent reimbursements and cash substitutes as income in money. Sentence 3 makes the exception that matters for voucher cards (German original):
Satz 2 gilt nicht bei Gutscheinen und Geldkarten, die ausschließlich zum Bezug von Waren oder Dienstleistungen berechtigen und die Kriterien des § 2 Absatz 1 Nummer 10 des Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetzes erfüllen.
In plain English: sentence 2 does not apply to vouchers and payment cards that entitle the holder exclusively to goods or services and meet the criteria of § 2 (1) No. 10 of the German Payment Services Supervision Act (ZAG). These criteria cover payment instruments whose use is limited in one of three ways:
- Limited network: usable for buying goods or services on the issuer's premises or within a limited network of service providers that have a commercial agreement with a professional issuer.
- Very limited range: usable only for buying a very limited range of goods or services.
- Social or tax purposes: limited to use in Germany and provided at the request of a company or public body for specific social or tax purposes.
Whether a particular fuel voucher or shopping card meets these conditions depends on the specific product. The card provider should confirm it in writing, and payroll checks it before the first card is issued. For the careers page, this does not call for an expert review but for a wording: the page states where the card can be used ("redeemable at …") instead of announcing "freely available credit". A card that can be used anywhere like cash counts as income in money under sentence 2. Advertising it as a benefit in kind anyway promises something the service cannot keep.
The second half of § 8 (2) sentence 11 EStG adds a further condition for vouchers and payment cards: they are only disregarded if granted on top of the pay already owed. What exactly "on top of" means is defined elsewhere in the law, and that provision affects far more than vouchers.
On top of pay: why a swap does not count
§ 8 (4) EStG defines this condition for the entire Income Tax Act. It therefore applies to every benefit the law ties to it: vouchers, transit pass, childcare subsidy, health promotion and the care services under § 3 No. 34a EStG. A benefit is only provided on top of the pay already owed if
- the benefit is not offset against the entitlement to pay,
- the entitlement to pay is not reduced in favor of the benefit,
- the earmarked benefit is not granted instead of a future pay increase that has already been agreed, and
- pay is not increased if the benefit is discontinued.
For care services bound by a collective agreement or a works agreement, § 8 (4) sentence 2 EStG contains an important clarification: if the employee is entitled to the benefit under an employment contract, works agreement or collective agreement, this does not rule out the "on top of" status as long as the conditions of sentence 1 are met. What is ruled out is the swap. Offering staff the option of giving up part of their gross pay in return for a voucher card reduces the pay entitlement in favor of the benefit.
On the careers page this comes down to a single phrase. "On top of the collectively agreed pay" or "on top of the agreed salary" is a verifiable statement that the service can back up with its payroll. "Instead of a pay raise" or "as part of your salary package", by contrast, reads like a swap, even if none is intended. Benefits that genuinely come from salary conversion, such as in a company pension scheme, are described in a separate section of the page and without reference to the limits discussed in this article.
Mobility: describe the transit pass and company car honestly
Home care is work on the road. For the journey to work and for the rounds themselves there are two benefits that careers pages often mention in one sentence, although the law treats them differently.
Under § 3 No. 15 EStG, subsidies for trips on scheduled public transport between home and the first place of work and for trips on local public transport are tax-free if the employer pays them on top of the pay already owed. The same applies if the service provides the ticket itself free of charge or at a reduced price. Sentence 3 of the same number sets out a consequence applicants should know: the tax-free benefits reduce the amount they can deduct as the commuting allowance in their tax return. A sentence such as "We pay [amount] euros a month toward your Deutschlandticket" is therefore accurate, while an addition such as "completely tax-free" is not, because it leaves out this effect.
The company car is different. If it may also be used privately, § 8 (2) sentence 2 EStG applies the rule of § 6 (1) No. 4 sentence 2 EStG to employees accordingly: private use is recognized at 1 percent (EStG) of the domestic list price at the time of first registration for each calendar month, plus the cost of optional extras. If the car may also be used between home and the first place of work, § 8 (2) sentence 3 EStG increases the value each calendar month by 0.03 percent (EStG) of the list price for every kilometer of distance. Instead of the flat rate, the value can be determined with a proper logbook (§ 8 (2) sentence 4 EStG), and § 6 (1) No. 4 sentence 2 EStG sets its own list price rules for electric and hybrid vehicles.
A company car for private use is therefore a real benefit, but not a free one: the taxable benefit increases taxable income. So the careers page does not say "company car included" but, for example: "You may also use your company car privately. You pay tax on the benefit under the statutory rule; before you sign, we show you in a sample payslip what that means for your vehicle." That is honest and an invitation to talk at the same time. Where the car is only meant for the rounds, the page says exactly that, so the first interview does not begin with a correction.
Health, children, training: subsidies with their own rules
Four further benefits suit care work particularly well because they address strains that come with the job. Each has its own number and conditions in the Income Tax Act, and each deserves its own tile on the careers page.
Health promotion (§ 3 No. 34 EStG): Benefits provided on top of pay to prevent and reduce health risks and to promote health in the workplace are tax-free if they meet the requirements of §§ 20 and 20b of Book V of the German Social Code regarding quality, purpose, targeting and certification, as long as they do not exceed 600 euros per calendar year (EStG). A general membership fee is not covered just because it serves health; what matters are the requirements of Book V of the Social Code. The Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen survey shows the demand: 74.8 percent (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022) of respondents rated prevention programs during working hours for dealing with psychological strain as important or very important.
Childcare (§ 3 No. 33 EStG): Benefits provided on top of pay for accommodating and caring for employees' children who are not yet of school age in kindergartens or comparable facilities are tax-free. The provision sets no cap on the amount. The careers page therefore states the amount the service actually pays and that it applies to children until school age. In the nationwide survey, 65.4 percent (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022) rated suitable childcare important or very important; for parents of young children, a childcare subsidy with a figure attached is a concrete reason to read the ad to the end.
Care for children and relatives in need of care (§ 3 No. 34a EStG): Additional payments to a service provider that advises employees on care for children or relatives in need of care, or arranges carers, are tax-free. In addition, short-term care for children under 14 years (EStG) or relatives in need of care is covered if it is necessary for compelling work-related reasons, for example a shift scheduled at short notice, up to 600 euros per calendar year (EStG). In the same survey, 57.6 percent (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022) rated care options for relatives in need of care important or very important. How the legal side of a sudden care need in the family works is explained in the article on the care support allowance guide page.
Training (§ 3 No. 19 EStG): Training provided by the employer that improves employability is tax-free; it must not be predominantly a reward. In care this is an obvious fit: practice mentoring, wound care, palliative care. 74.4 percent (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen 2022) rated more continuing education and training opportunities important or very important. The careers page should state which training the service pays for, whether course days count as working time and whether a repayment clause applies.
| Benefit | Rule in the EStG | Limit under the law | What belongs on the careers page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voucher card, fuel voucher | § 8 (2) sentence 11 | 50 euros per calendar month, all benefits in kind combined | amount, where it can be redeemed, from when, part-time included |
| Transit pass | § 3 No. 15 | no cap on the amount; reduces the commuting allowance | subsidy per month or ticket provided |
| Health courses | § 3 No. 34 | 600 euros per calendar year, requirements of §§ 20 and 20b SGB V | which courses, during or outside working hours |
| Childcare subsidy | § 3 No. 33 | no cap on the amount; only children not yet of school age | amount per child and month |
| Short-term care | § 3 No. 34a | 600 euros per calendar year for short-term care | when the service steps in and how to apply |
| Training | § 3 No. 19 | not predominantly a reward | which courses, who pays, time off |
| Company car, private use | § 6 (1) No. 4, § 8 (2) | 1 percent of the list price per month as a taxable benefit | that the benefit is taxed |
What the page does not promise: tax and social security
Some ads advertise "free of tax and social security contributions". The phrase is tempting because it promises net pay, and it is risky because it depends on conditions the service cannot confirm in advance for the individual person. In social security, treatment generally follows wage tax: under § 1 (1) sentence 1 No. 1 of the German Social Insurance Remuneration Ordinance (SvEV), allowances, subsidies and similar income granted on top of wages or salaries are not counted as remuneration to the extent that they are free of wage tax. Sentence 2 of the same provision makes this conditional on the employer leaving them free of wage tax or taxing them at a flat rate in the payroll.
This results in a simple division of tasks. The careers page describes the benefit: what, how much, for whom, from when. Payroll decides the tax and contribution treatment in each individual case. A note such as "Tax treatment follows the statutory rules; your payslip shows it in detail" is honest and can be kept. Writing "net equals gross" instead risks disappointment with the first payslip. That disappointment may end up where other applicants inform themselves in advance: in employer reviews. How a service responds there objectively is described in the article on employer reviews in care.
Three phrases that do not belong on the page
One distinction belongs here as well: bonuses for referring new colleagues are not a benefit in the sense of this article. They are usually treated as pay and belong on a separate page, as described in the article on employee referrals.
Benefits are pay: the link to salary information
The EU Pay Transparency Directive defines "pay" broadly. Under Article 3(1)(a), it includes, in addition to the basic wage or salary, all other remuneration an employer pays because of the employment relationship, expressly including payment in kind (German version):
„Entgelt“ die üblichen Grund- oder Mindestlöhne und -gehälter sowie alle sonstigen Vergütungen, die ein Arbeitgeber aufgrund des Dienstverhältnisses einem Arbeitnehmer unmittelbar oder mittelbar (ergänzende oder variable Bestandteile) als Geld- oder Sachleistung zahlt;
Member states had to transpose the directive by June 7, 2026 (EU Pay Transparency Directive). Article 5 gives job applicants the right to receive information from the prospective employer about the starting pay or its range, for example in a published vacancy notice or before the job interview. Benefits are therefore not an extra next to pay, but part of the same information.
For the careers page this means an order, not a calculation. The basic pay or range comes first, as described in the article on salary information in care job ads. The benefits follow below, each with amount and condition. A self-calculated "total package worth up to … euros a year", on the other hand, is delicate: it adds up benefits that not everyone receives and mixes taxable with favored components. Anyone who wants to show a total states it separately for each benefit and with a sentence on who it applies to.
The section on the careers page: one tile per benefit
A simple grid is enough for the presentation: one tile per benefit, each with the same details in the same order. This lets applicants compare the benefits with each other and with other ads without having to ask. The following six building blocks carry the section:
Benefit by name
Not "mobility" but "subsidy toward the Deutschlandticket". The name says what the person ends up holding.
Amount or rule
An amount per month, one course every six months, the full cost of training. Where there is no amount, the rule is stated.
Who gets it
All employees, including part-time and mini-job staff, or only after probation. Restrictions go in the tile, not in the small print.
From when
From the first working day, from the first full month or after probation. A clear start prevents the first disappointment.
Review date
Below the section is the date the service last checked the details. If a benefit changes, the page changes on the same day.
Basis in the contract
What is on the page is also in the employment contract or works agreement. The page refers to it instead of promising more.
The order of the tiles follows the applicant group. For a service with many part-time staff with young children, the childcare subsidy comes first; for a rural service with long distances, the company car. The same details belong in every single job posting. Where vacancies are marked up with structured data, they also belong in the jobBenefits property that schema.org provides for job postings; that way the ad, the careers page and the markup match.
The section does not stand alone. It follows rosters and pay and leads to the application, ideally a quick application without a cover letter. How the rest of the careers page for care services is structured, from vacancies to the application route, is shown on our service page; the basics of recruiting through your own website are in the article on staff recruiting in care.
One tile, the same required details
At the turn of the year: set benefits and maintain the page
Many benefits are tied to the calendar year: the limit for health courses, the training budget, the works agreement. Anyone deciding at the turn of the year what applies in 2027 should update the careers page in the same step. Five steps are enough:
- Take stock: Which benefits does the service actually pay today, to whom and how much? The basis is payroll, works agreements and employment contracts, not the old ad.
- Align with payroll: For each benefit, clarify which rule it is processed under and whether it meets the "on top of" conditions. For voucher cards, also clarify whether the product meets the criteria of the Payment Services Supervision Act.
- Write the tiles: For each benefit, name, amount or rule, eligibility and start. No tax promise, but a reference to payroll.
- Align the job postings: Carry the same details into every ad and the structured data so that the careers page and the ads do not drift apart.
- Set the review date and schedule the next check: Put the date below the section and the next review in the calendar, at the latest by the next turn of the year or when the law changes.
If you do not want to handle ongoing maintenance yourself, you can hand it over: our website maintenance takes care of small content changes and keeps job postings up to date. For a rebuild, it is worth looking at the care website as a whole and at our other services for care providers. If you would like to sort out your benefits first, send us the list via the contact form; we will turn it into a draft for the tiles.
One last point concerns credibility over the course of the year. A benefit that is cut disappears from the page on the same day. A benefit that is added only appears once it is contractually agreed. Following these two rules gives you a careers page that does not need correcting in the job interview.
Sources and legal basis
Related Articles
Care support allowance: the guide page for relatives
Sudden care need while working: ten days off, the care support allowance and, since 2026, a nursing professional's certificate. How to build the guide page.
Complaints in home care: the feedback form on your website
The MuG ambulant in force since 1 July 2026 still require complaints management. Your care website as the way in for relatives: form, call-back, reply time.
ePA in care: what relatives want to know about access
The ePA in care: what the care service sees, who adds entries, how relatives object or act as representatives, and how a guide page answers these questions.