There are several legal contexts in which beneficio cannot be translated as “benefit,” and vice versa. When used with the meaning of “ganancias,” beneficio is often rendered as “profit,” as in margin de beneficio (“profit margin”); beneficio bruto (“gross profit”); beneficio neto (“net profit”); beneficio contable (“accounting profit”) or beneficio de explotación (“operating profit”). Similarly, beneficio may also refer to “earnings,” as in the expressions beneficio por acción or BPA (“earnings per share” or “EPS”); beneficio antes de impuestos or BAI (“earnings before taxes” or “EBT”); beneficio antes de intereses e impuestos or BAII (“earnings before interest and taxes” or “EBIT”) and beneficio antes de intereses, impuestos, depreciación y amortización or BAIIDA (“earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization” or “EBITDA”).*

Another example in which beneficio cannot be translated simply as “benefit” is in the expression beneficios penitenciarios. As defined in Art. 202 of the Spanish Reglamento Penitenciario, beneficios penitenciarios generically refer to all measures that carry a reduction of an inmate’s sentence or the time effectively served in prison (medidas que permiten la reducción de la duración de la condena… o el tiempo efectivo de internamiento). Examples include good behavior (buena conducta), and other aspects such as holding a job (desempeño de una actividad laboral normal) and participating in reeducation and rehabilitation programs (actividades de reeducación y reinserción social). Although often translated literally as “prison benefits,” in many US states and in the federal prison system (Federal Bureau of Prisons) beneficios penitenciarios awarded for good behavior are known as “good time,” or “good time credit,” while prison work and participation in inmate educational programs often are referred to as “earned time.” Thus, depending on the context and for US audiences, concesión de beneficios penitenciarios may be rendered as “award of good time/earned time,” computo de beneficios penitenciarios denotes “calculation of good time/earned time,” and reducción de beneficios penitenciarios is “loss of good time/earned time.”

Similarly, there are a series of expressions in which beneficio denotes a “right” or “privilege,” rather than a benefit. In that regard, in Spanish procedural law contexts beneficio de justicia gratuita or beneficio de asistencia jurídica gratuita (formerly known as beneficio de pobreza) refers to a party’s right to free legal counsel or legal aid (likewise known as derecho a la asistencia jurídica gratuita). In Spanish inheritance law the expression beneficio de inventario refers to an heir’s right to demand an inventory of the decedent’s estate to determine the extent of its debts before accepting the inheritance. And with regard to a cosigner’s liability for a debt, beneficio de excusión, division y orden denote the cosigner’s right to compel the creditor to sue the borrower first (excusión), to be liable only for their proportional share of the debt (división) if there are multiple cosigners, and to have all other remedies first exhausted against the borrower before resorting to the cosigner (orden).

In other respects, in English and in the context of social security law, “benefit” cannot always be translated as beneficio, but rather is often more appropriately rendered as prestación. This is true in expressions such as “social security benefits” (prestaciones de la seguridad social); “unemployment benefits” (prestaciones por desempleo); retirement benefits (prestaciones por jubilación); “contributory benefits” (prestaciones contributivas) or “noncontributory benefits” (prestaciones no contributivas).

Likewise, in the context of labor law the expression “fringe benefits” refers generally to prestaciones extrasalariales, including various types of nonwage compensation provided by the employer such as a profit sharing scheme (plan de participación en los beneficios), stock options (opciones sobre acciones), medical and healthcare insurance (seguro médico), employee housing (vivienda de la empresa), a company car (coche de la empresa) or company daycare (guardería de la empresa).

*For more on amortización and amortization see here