According to EBA Taxonomy, the « Total variable remuneration of all high earners » (r0100) should include « Severance payments awarded during the financial year » (r0200).

This point is controlled by the validation rule v09282_m which checks that : « Severance payments awarded during the financial year » (r0200) + « Total amount of contributions to discretionary pension benefits in year N » (r0210) + « Total amount of variable remuneration awarded for multi- year periods under programmes which are not revolved annually » (r0220) ≤ « Total variable remuneration of all high earners » (r0100),

In some cases, the inclusion of « Severance payments awarded during the financial year » (r0200) within « Total variable remuneration of all high earners » (r0100) may cause an error to validation rule v09286_m that checks that : « Total variable remuneration of all high earners » (r0100) ≤ 2 x « Total fixed remuneration of all high earners » (r0060), due to a variable compensation overlap regarding CRD5 rules which specifies that the ratio between the variable and fixed remuneration for high earners that are identified staff should be below 200% with shareholders’ approval.

However, EBA Guidelines on High Earners report REM04 (« Final report on GLs on the high earner data collections under CRD and IFD ») precise that :

48. For institutions the ratio between the variable and fixed remuneration for high earners that are identified staff should be below 100% (200% with shareholders’ approval), after the deduction of amounts awarded as severance pay or guaranteed variable remuneration that have not been taken into account for the calculation of the ratio and amounts awarded to high earners within firms that apply a specific remuneration framework.

Indeed, according to “Guidelines on sound remuneration policies under Directive 2013/36/EU” (paragraph 172), severance payments such as « severance payments mandatory under national labour law or mandatory following a decision of a court » and some others circumstances as described in paragraph 172, shouldn’t be taken into account for the purpose of the calculation of that ratio.