FAQ Mobility Card
for employers
Everything you need to know about using the MOBIKO Mobility Card
The MOBIKO Mobility Card
With the Mobility Card, you can make full use of the benefit in kind and offer your employees an attractive, sustainable and tax-free mobility benefit with the mobility card.
FAQ – Our answers to the most important questions
With the MOBIKO Mobility Card, you as a company can easily utilise the tax benefits of non-cash benefits and offer your employees an attractive and tax-free mobility benefit. The types of mobility that can be used with the Mobility Card and the amount of the non-cash benefit subsidy can be customised. All information for correct recording in payroll accounting is available in a monthly export.
After successfully concluding a contract with MOBIKO, the KYB check for opening an account with our product partner SWAN takes place first. SWAN is a licensed e-money institution that enables payments with the MOBIKO Mobility Card. Once the KYB process has been completed, the card module is configured in the MOBIKO platform. This includes payment plans, whitelists and user invitations. You will also receive communication materials from us for users relating to the card.
Contracts are always signed with MOBIKO. However, in the course of the KYB check, the terms and conditions of Swan.io must be agreed to, so that a business relationship is also established with our partner.
Anti-money laundering regulations set out numerous ways in which organisations (both financial and non-financial) should monitor and protect themselves against potential money laundering activity. Carrying out checks and due diligence on new and existing customers is a key part of this. Customers can be both businesses and individuals, and this is where the Know Your Business (KYB) regulations come into play.
Know Your Business (KYB) refers to the due diligence of a business that an organisation is involved with. The AML (Anti-Money Laundering) regulations require that every potential business customer is checked for identity and authenticity. This is intended to help prevent money laundering or terrorist financing activities.
The KYB audit can be carried out by a person authorised by the company. As part of the KYB audit, information about the contact person, the company and the ownership must be provided.
The UBO is also named. UBO stands for Ultimate Beneficial Owner. The ultimate beneficial owner of a legal entity is the natural person who:
- holds at least 25% of the capital of an organisation or institution, or
- holds at least 25% of the voting rights in a general meeting, or
- is the beneficiary of at least 25% of the assets of the organisation or institution.
If a company does not have a UBO with 25%, the management takes its place.
The administration of the MOBIKO Mobility Card requires a close link between MOBIKO and our card service provider SWAN. SWAN is an e-money institute that specialises in implementing a concept such as the MOBIKO Mobility Card. This link requires a long and not uncomplicated product development process. It is therefore not possible to use your own company account.
Payments with the MOBIKO Mobility Card are processed via the company’s account with SWAN. The company provides SWAN with a credit balance for this purpose.
No, the Mobility Card is a debit card, which is covered by the company’s credit balance at the partner company SWAN.
It can be used throughout Europe; however, there may be slight variations from country to country as to which service providers are represented and authorised. Further information is available from the MOBIKO support team on request: support@mobiko.de.
Yes, the company can individually authorise the desired mobility types via so-called whitelists. Mobility is narrowed down precisely using merchant ID codes. These can be used to determine which services can be used as part of the Mobility Card.
The MOBIKO Mobility Card is a payment card. The employee can plan their journey themselves, the Mobility Card is used with the mobility provider as a means of payment and for billing.
The employee must be informed that unused budget cannot be paid out. They should be instructed to utilise the budget in full by the time they leave or an agreed period beyond that. If this is not possible, the amount can be donated to a charitable organisation. The departing employee is deactivated in MOBIKO or deactivated as planned on a specific date. Further deactivation in Swan is not necessary, as the MOBIKO and Swan systems synchronise.
New employees are first added to the MOBIKO platform in the “User administration” of the MOBIKO Web App. The prerequisite for using the MOBIKO Mobility Card is that the telephone number and date of birth are stored in the employee’s profile in the user administration.
The new employee can then be invited in the card module under card management via “Invite user”. Note: Only users with a stored telephone number and date of birth are displayed in the invitation area.
The user is then assigned a payment plan and a whitelist (= permitted mobility types).
A payment plan comprises the amount and type of salary that an employee should receive each month for their Mobility Card. Any number of different payment plans can be created.
In the “approved mobility” area, companies can create various whitelists that define which mobility types employees can use with their MOBIKO Mobility Card. These include, for example, bike & scooter sharing, car sharing, e-charging, refuelling, taxis (not an exhaustive list). Any number of different whitelists can be created.
At the beginning of each month, employees are allocated credit to use their MOBIKO Mobility Card based on their respective payment plan. For newly added users, this payout must be carried out manually once in the first month using the “Execute missing payout” button. All users who have not yet received a payout in this month will receive a payout according to their respective payout plan.
The Mobility Card can be used with three taxation logics:
- Benefit in kind 50 euros
- Non-cash benefit in accordance with § 37b EStG with a monthly limit of 833 euros, resulting in a total limit of 10,000 euros per year,
- Individual taxation, which is based on the wage tax of the individual employees and their individual tax class configurations.
The wage type required for this is stored in the “Payroll accounting” section of the MOBIKO Web App.
MOBIKO provides an export file for payroll accounting at the beginning of each month. This file is customised to the respective import requirements due to the numerous interfaces to various payroll accounting systems. This file contains all relevant information for the correct recording of the Mobility Card in payroll accounting.
The “Anrufungsauskunft” is a free, binding information from the responsible tax office. It deals with very specific and clearly formulated income tax issues and questions of doubt regarding the income tax deduction procedure.
An “Anrufungsauskunft” request should be made if any type of tax optimisation is used or is to be used in connection with the non-cash benefit. However, it is not obligatory to submit a tax optimisation notice; it merely provides assurance that the tax optimisation used will be accepted by the relevant tax office. However, a binding confirmation from the responsible tax office is not valid nationwide.
MOBIKO has submitted a request for information on its own behalf and received a corresponding confirmation from the responsible tax office in Munich. We will be happy to provide you with this confirmation if required.
If you would like to submit an “Anrufungsauskunft” yourself, we will support you with the relevant documents.
The responsible tax office must provide feedback within 6 months of receipt of the “Anrufungsauskunft”.
In the meantime, it is possible to use the MOBIKO Mobility Card with reference to the “Anrufungsauskunft” authorised by MOBIKO.
Employees’ transactions are covered by the credit balance available to them in the company’s SWAN account. In the MOBIKO web app, the Card Admin has an overview of the credit allocated to employees and the available credit on the account.
No, it is not possible to withdraw money. The Mobility Card is restricted to use as means of payment with certain mobility providers.
Contactless payment is possible with the Mobility Card, and it can also be stored in the smartphone wallet.
The recurring credit is automatically allocated to the employee’s payment plan each month. Once a user has used up their allocated credit, it is no longer possible to pay with the Mobility Card.
The unused budget is carried over to the following month or months. Payment is not possible.
In the MOBIKO App, employees can see how much credit is available to them each month. The stored payment plans are also displayed to the user in the MOBIKO App.
No, the Mobility Card is a virtual payment card. The Mobility Card can be deposited as a means of payment with authorised mobility providers.
Yes, both the iOS and Android operating systems are supported.
If loss or misuse is suspected, the Mobility Card can be blocked via MOBIKO. A distinction must be made between permanent and temporary blocking. The card can be blocked directly via the MOBIKO PWA.
An overview of the transactions made can be viewed in each user account.
Only a Card Admin can make changes to the MOBIKO Mobility Card. Other admin roles in MOBIKO have no access to this module.