Understand what a benefit costs and how it is paid

How to read the cost summary and breakdown on a benefit page, how the social fee, the wellness tax-free limit, campaign discounts and your payment method change the price, and how a salary deduction shows up on your pay.

Every benefit page in the store shows a running cost summary in the sidebar while you choose your options, so you always know the price before you commit. For taxable benefits, CLVR adds a more detailed cost breakdown box that explains how the total is built up. A handful of things shape that total: which payment method you pick, whether the benefit is taxable, how much of your wellness tax-free limit is left, and whether a campaign discount is running. This article walks through all of it so nothing on the final price is a surprise, and ends with how a salary deduction shows up on your pay.

Read the cost summary and breakdown

As you fill in a benefit and pick options, the sidebar on the right keeps a live cost summary. When you are paying with your allowance it starts with Remaining Allowance, then lists each part of the price line by line and ends with a bold Total Cost.

Depending on the benefit and how you pay, the lines can include:

• Paid from Allowance: the part covered by your benefit allowance.
• Paid from Salary: the part deducted from your pay, shown with (no social fee).
• A Social Security line: the social fee added when a taxable amount is paid from your allowance, with the rate and the amount it is charged on.
• Base Benefit Cost and Campaign Discount: shown only when a campaign discount applies.

The summary recalculates every time you change an option or switch your Payment Method, so the Total Cost always reflects your current choices.

Some benefits are taxable (a benefit in kind). For those, an info-styled Total Cost box appears above the form with the same numbers laid out in more detail. It is there to show exactly where the total comes from, including the part Paid from Allowance (broken down into the benefit amount and the social fee), the part Paid from Salary with no social fees, and, where it applies, the split between the tax-free and taxable portions. If a benefit is fully tax-free or paid entirely from salary, there is no taxable amount, so this box does not add a social fee line.

Two small info icons can appear in the breakdown, each opening a short popover. The one next to Benefit amount from allowance explains how CLVR works out the largest benefit amount your remaining allowance can cover (including social fees) when the allowance cannot cover the whole purchase, so the rest comes from salary with no extra fees. The one next to the Social Security line explains the social fee, the rate, and that it only applies to amounts above any tax-free threshold for the category.

Choosing how to pay: allowance or salary

When you buy a benefit, the purchase panel shows a Payment Method choice with two options, and your choice decides where the money comes from and, for taxable benefits, whether a social security fee is added:

• Benefit Allowance ("Use your allocated benefit allowance"). The cost is taken from the benefit budget your employer gives you. This is the default selection.
• Salary Deduction ("Deduct from your next paycheck"). The cost is taken from your pay instead of your allowance, so your remaining allowance is left untouched.

The selector only appears on benefits you buy directly; it is not shown on benefits you register interest in.

The summary reacts to your choice straight away. With Benefit Allowance, the panel shows your Remaining Allowance and a line for Paid from Allowance; if the cost is larger than your remaining allowance, the part that does not fit is shown as Paid from Salary. With Salary Deduction, the panel shows a single Paid from Salary line for the full amount, marked (no social fee), and your allowance is not used at all.

For some benefits the form adapts to the method you pick: a field can appear only for one method, be hidden for the other, or be set to a sensible default. If a field changes or disappears after you switch the Payment Method, that is expected, just fill in what is shown. When you continue to Confirm Purchase, the confirmation step repeats the same breakdown, including which method you chose and any social security fee, and your selected method is saved together with the purchase.

The social security fee on taxable benefits

Some benefits are taxable (a taxable benefit is known as a BIK). When you pay for one from your benefit allowance, Swedish tax rules require an employer social security fee of 31.42% on the taxable part of the cost. CLVR builds this fee into the amount taken from your allowance, so the benefit stays cost neutral for your employer. The fee appears in the cost breakdown before you confirm, both when you buy from the Benefits Store and when you upload an expense receipt, as a line like Social Security (31.42% on ...) followed by the fee amount. Next to it is an info icon explaining that Swedish tax regulations require the fee when you use your allowance for a taxable benefit.

The fee is 31.42% of the taxable amount, not of the whole cost. The taxable amount is whatever is left after any tax-free threshold for the category is applied: the part within the threshold carries no fee and is marked (tax-free), and the fee is charged only on the remainder above the threshold.

A worked example

Say a taxable benefit costs 1,000 kr and the tax-free portion for you is 600 kr:

• 600 kr is tax-free, with no fee.
• The remaining 400 kr is taxable: 400 × 31.42% = 125.68 kr.
• The total taken from your allowance is 1,125.68 kr.

The breakdown shows each of these lines so the numbers add up in front of you before you confirm.

The fee only ever applies to the amount paid from your Benefit Allowance; anything paid through your salary carries no fee, which is why the salary part is labelled (no social fee). This is why the same benefit can cost less overall when more of it is paid from salary. Pension salary sacrifice is a special case: depositing to your pension from your allowance is not treated as a taxable benefit, and it uses a reduced rate of 24.26% (in Swedish, särskild löneskatt) instead of 31.42%. The fee is part of the Sweden rules that apply to your company, because Swedish employers owe social contributions (arbetsgivaravgift) on the value of a taxable benefit. Companies in countries without an equivalent rule do not show this fee.

The wellness tax-free threshold

Wellness (friskvård) is tax-free only up to an annual limit per employee, commonly 5,000 kr but set by your company. This threshold is what lets you claim gym memberships, classes, and other approved activities without being taxed on them. It is cumulative: it covers everything you have already claimed in the wellness category this year, not each receipt on its own. So if your limit is 5,000 kr and you have already had 3,000 kr reimbursed, you have 2,000 kr of tax-free room left for the rest of the period.

• The limit is per employee, per category, per year.
• Each approved wellness receipt uses up part of your room.
• Only the wellness category counts toward the wellness limit. Other categories have their own rules.

As long as a new purchase or receipt fits within the room you have left, it is fully tax-free with nothing extra to pay. Because tax-free thresholds build up across the year, the more of yours you have already used, the less of a new purchase is tax-free, so more of it is taxable and the social fee is larger. The threshold tracks amounts paid from your Benefit Allowance; it does not count anything you pay yourself, so paying out of pocket does not use up your tax-free room. Your wellness room resets together with your benefit period, on your company's reset date.

The Tax Free badge

Some benefit cards in the store show a small Tax Free badge in the top corner of the image. It tells you that this benefit will not have the social security fee added when you pay from your benefit allowance, so the price you see is the price you pay. A benefit gets the badge when its category is not subject to the employer social security fee; for benefits without the badge, paying from your allowance adds the 31.42% fee on top of the price.

Tax-free status is decided at the category level, and your company chooses it for you. Every benefit in a tax-free category shows the badge; every benefit in a category that is not tax-free does not. This is the same reason two similar-looking benefits can carry different costs: they sit in different categories. Above the benefit grid there is a row of filter buttons, All, Discounted, and Tax Free; select Tax Free to show only benefits without the fee. That button only appears when your company has at least one tax-free benefit available to you.

Tax-free does not always mean unlimited. Wellness is tax-free only up to its annual limit (commonly 5,000 kr per year). If a purchase or claim takes you over the limit for the year, the part above it has the 31.42% fee added, even though the benefit still shows the Tax Free badge. The cost breakdown you see before you confirm always shows the real split for your purchase.

Campaign discounts

From time to time a benefit runs a campaign: a limited time discount your employer has set up. While it is active, CLVR shows the discount right where you shop and automatically subtracts it from your cost, so you never have to enter a code. A benefit with a live campaign is flagged in two places:

• In the store. Its card shows a small red badge in the top corner, such as -15% for a percentage discount or -100 kr for a fixed amount. Use the Discounted filter above the grid to see only benefits on offer.
• On the benefit page. A campaign banner sits near the top with a short headline, a description, the same red badge, and a countdown showing how long the offer lasts (for example, "Ends in 5 days").

There are two kinds of discount: a percentage (a share of the cost, so a larger benefit saves you more) and a fixed amount (a set number of kronor off, capped at the price so it can never take the cost below zero). In the cost summary, the sidebar, and the Confirm Purchase step you will see Base Benefit Cost (the normal price), Campaign Discount (the amount taken off, shown as a minus), and Total Cost (what you actually pay).

The discounted total, not the original price, is what everything downstream is based on: it is the amount split between your allowance and any part paid from salary, and for taxable (BIK) benefits it is the figure the social fee is calculated on, so a campaign lowers that fee too.

When you do not have enough allowance

When you buy something and your remaining allowance does not cover the full price, CLVR does not block the purchase. It takes what it can from your allowance and recovers the rest through a deduction on your next paycheck. For most benefits the part that fits in your remaining allowance is drawn from there, and the part that does not fit is deducted from your pay. The split is shown to you before you confirm, in the cost breakdown on the purchase confirmation screen.

Before you confirm a purchase that goes over your allowance, a warning notice appears at the top of the confirmation screen telling you the amount that will come out of your pay, with wording like:

Once HR approves this transaction, [amount] will be deducted from your paycheck.

So you always know the salary-deduction figure before you select Confirm Purchase, not after. The Paid from Salary line never carries a social security fee; that fee only ever applies to the part paid from your allowance on taxable (BIK) benefits.

A few benefits do not allow a split. For these, the purchase is either paid entirely from your allowance (if the full cost fits) or entirely from your salary (if it does not, with nothing taken from the allowance). You will see the same cost breakdown either way, so it is always clear which one applies before you confirm.

How a salary deduction appears on your pay

For a Benefits Store purchase, CLVR or the provider pays the provider up front, so the cost has to be recovered. Nothing is refused: you still get the benefit, and the uncovered amount simply moves to your salary. This is the key difference from an uploaded receipt, where you paid the provider yourself and anything above your allowance is just not reimbursed.

Before you confirm, the Confirm Purchase review shows the salary figure (with wording like "Once HR approves this transaction, 248 kr will be deducted from your paycheck"), lists Paid from Allowance and Paid from Salary, and marks the salary line (no social fee). For taxable benefits there is a small side effect worth knowing: the social fee uses up part of your allowance, so slightly less of the price fits there and slightly more falls to salary. The breakdown always shows the exact figures.

Once you confirm, the purchase is created and routed for approval, and you get a confirmation email. Depending on your company's setup the purchase is either approved automatically or sent for review, and the success notice on screen tells you which. You can review the full split any time under My Benefits: open the purchase and the Payment Breakdown card shows Paid using allowance (the part drawn from your benefit allowance) and Deducted from paycheck (the salary part, the same figure you saw before confirming). The deduction is applied through your normal payroll once the purchase is approved, so it appears on the relevant payslip rather than as a separate charge.

Troubleshooting

• The total seems higher than the sticker price. For taxable benefits the social fee is added to the allowance portion above any tax-free threshold. Open the Social Security info icon to see how it is calculated.
• My fee is larger than a colleague's on the same benefit. You have likely used more of your tax-free threshold this year, so a bigger share of your purchase is taxable. The threshold builds up cumulatively.
• I want to avoid the fee. Switch the Payment Method to Salary Deduction: the salary part never carries the fee. The cost summary updates instantly so you can compare.
• I do not see a Social Security line at all. Either the benefit is tax-free, or the whole amount fits within your tax-free threshold, or you are paying entirely from salary. In each case there is nothing to charge the fee on.
• The purchase button will not turn on. You have not selected a priced option yet. Add one and the Total Cost updates and the button enables.
• I do not see a Payment Method choice. The selector only shows on benefits you buy directly. Benefits where you register interest do not have it.
• My receipt was only partly reimbursed. You likely went past your remaining wellness limit for the year. Open the expense to see the Not reimbursed amount in the breakdown.
• My wellness limit looks different from a colleague's. The wellness limit is a company setting. If it looks wrong, ask your HR team.
• The campaign badge is gone when I come back. The campaign has ended, or has not started yet. Check the countdown on the benefit page for the dates.
• The discount did not change my total. Make sure you have selected your options so a cost is showing. The Campaign Discount line only appears once there is a cost to discount. A fixed discount is also capped at the price, so it can reduce the cost to zero but no further.
• I do not want a salary deduction. Buy only up to your remaining allowance, or wait until your allowance refreshes. Your remaining balance is shown as you fill in the benefit.
• The deduction looks larger than the part over my allowance. On taxable benefits the social fee uses up part of your allowance, so a little less of the price fits there and a little more falls to salary. The breakdown shows the exact figures.
• The deduction figure is not what I expected. Open the purchase under My Benefits and check the Payment Breakdown; it carries the exact allowance and salary amounts. If it still looks wrong, contact your HR team.