Food-delivery app OrderIn has found a way to incorporate local tax law into its app to allow for instant tax-breaks on food ordered via the service during business hours.
The local tech company has been working with SARS for the past few months to integrate the tax discounts into the app.
OrderIn CEO Dinesh Patel says in South African law, employers are permitted to provide tax-deductible meals to their employees. But most don't because of the expense involved to set up a canteen in-house and, if they do, they often don't have the wide range of meals a diverse set of South Africans might require.
Patel says as far as he knows, this is the first app of its kind in the world. He believes that by digitising local tax law, the company is able to "democratise the meal benefit" so that any company, no matter the size, can take advantage of it.
To make use of the commercial offering, a firm's human resource department will need to allow for a company contribution through payroll.
After that, a separate business account will appear in the employee's OrderIn account where they can make use of the benefit.
The discount applied will depend on the employee's tax bracket, with those in higher brackets benefiting from higher discounts on the meals they order using the app at work.
Dimension Data, Media24 and Societe General were some of the first companies to sign up.
Patel says set up can take a few days or up to a couple of weeks, "depending on how savvy the client is".
OrderIn makes money through the commercial side of the service by charging companies R20 per employee each month.
He says restaurants do not get less money now that customers are paying less. "Restaurants get paid their full menu price, less our commission. We save the employee on their tax bill, which has the same effect as if we reduced the sales price of the food."
There are currently 1 050 restaurants listed on OrderIn.
Benefit to company
The discounted food prices are not just a nice perk for employees, says Patel, but a way for employers to retain talent.
"All benefits, no matter how small, add up and play a role in how the younger millennial workforce chooses their place of work," says Dimension Data HR executive for MEA Michaela Voller.
"In the South African context, as inflation rises and the economy gets more difficult, we are also looking to subsidise people's take-home pay."
Dimension Data was also attracted to the service because it falls in line with how it wants to interact with its employees in the future.
Basha Pillay, head of digital workplace for Dimension Data MEA, says OrderIn is the first time he has seen an on-demand application being applied to the corporate environment and is excited about the choice it gives employees and the future applications of the idea.
Patel says gamification within the app is on the cards. Points would be added to healthier meals and there would be rewards for meeting certain goals, and also a feature which would pit colleagues against each other by allowing them to track how healthy their team members are eating.
He says this would benefit employees and employers alike, because there is "certainly a correlation between what people eat and the number of sick days they take, as well as overall mood and productivity in the office".
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