When the employer reimburses office furniture/IT equipment

An employer can reimburse his home workers for office furniture/IT equipment which is necessary to carry out the professional activity at home. Can this reimbursement be considered as a reimbursement of the employer's own expenses?

General

In principle, all allowances received as a result of or in connection with the professional activity are taxable as remuneration. However, an allowance may be considered as a non-taxable reimbursement of the employer's own expenses if the employer can prove that the allowance is intended to cover expenses that are properly due by him and the allowance is actually spent on such expenses.

The circular of 26 February 2021 on employer’s compensations for homework clarifies the income tax consequences of such reimbursements for employees.

What do we mean by homework?

Homework is understood to mean any form of organisation and/or performance of work in which work, that could also be carried out in the employer's workplace, is regularly carried out outside that workplace.

The notion of 'workplace' is to be understood in a broad sense, encompassing the activities of employees that are normally carried out at the customer's premises or at another location (e.g. at a satellite office of the employer, i.e. a decentralised room of the employer or a room that the employer puts at the disposal of the employee).

Homework must therefore be carried out in the employee's private premises. Work performed in a satellite office of the employer is not homework. A satellite office is considered to be part of the employer's workplace.

The circular refers to homework as part of normal working hours and therefore does not regulate the issue of employees working at home outside normal working hours (e.g. in the evening or at the weekend).

What furniture? What equipment?

More specifically, it concerns, restrictively, the reimbursement of the following elements:

• an office chair;
• an office table;
• an office cupboard;
• a functional desk lamp;
• a second computer screen;
• a printer/scanner;
• a keyboard;
• a computer mouse, foot mouse, trackpad or trackball;
• a telephone headset;
• specific equipment that people with disabilities need to be able to work easily with a PC.

An ergonomic office chair, office table, mouse, trackpad or trackball may qualify if the employer makes this type of office furniture/IT equipment available under normal circumstances at the workplace.

Costs properly due by the employer? 

The administration accepts that the reimbursements of the above-mentioned office furniture/IT equipment, which is necessary to carry out the professional activity at home in a normal way, are considered as a reimbursement of the employer's own expenses, provided that they are based on actual supporting documents and that they are related to investments which are necessary for the normal performance of the professional activity at home. The employer must keep the supporting documents available.

In the case of part-time work, the amount of such reimbursements should not be reduced proportionately to the number of hours provided for in the employment contract.

'Reasonable' reimbursements

One-off reimbursements must remain reasonable.

In practice, this means that it will not be accepted, for example, that the full cost of purchasing an office chair is reimbursed every year where the normal period of use of that office chair is 10 years.

However, the employer is not obliged to make the reimbursement at once. An agreement can be reached with the employee to spread the reimbursement over a number of years, for example over the normal period of use of the office chair.

The administration assumes the following normal periods of use:

• office chair: 10 years;
• office table: 10 years;
• office cupboard: 10 years;
• desk lamp: 5 years;
• second computer screen: 3 years:
• printer/scanner: 3 years;
• other peripheral equipment: 3 years.

When the professional activity or homework ends before the normal period of use of the investments has expired and the employee does not have to reimburse the employer the actual residual value (or part of it), the actual residual value of the investment (or the difference between the actual residual value and the reimbursement by the employee) must at that moment be taxed as a benefit of any kind.

Reimbursements of expenses that unreasonably exceed the nature of the employer's own expenses constitute a taxable benefit. This can be assessed by making a comparison with the office furniture/IT equipment that the employer normally makes available in the workplace (e.g. extra-large computer screens that are rather intended for films or computer games but are also used for homework, an expensive designer desk lamp, very expensive office chairs, etc.).

Can the reimbursement of the purchase price of office furniture/IT equipment be combined with the flat-rate office allowance?

In principle, the flat-rate office allowance covers all office expenses (see our Infoflash of 4 March 2021). These are all costs that have to be incurred on a regular basis in order to carry out the professional activity in a normal way.

However, the tax administration accepts that the reimbursements (in this case on top of the flat-rate office allowance) of the above-mentioned office furniture/IT equipment are considered as a reimbursement of the employer's own expenses, without these reimbursements having to be deducted from the flat-rate office allowance, provided that the conditions for the granting of the flat-rate office allowance and the reimbursements of the office furniture/IT equipment are met.

And in terms of social security?

The NSSO has decided to follow the tax circular regarding the qualification of the reimbursements in the framework of homeworking expenses.

Entry into force

The circular entered into force on 1 March 2021, but the tax authority will take into account the principles contained therein for homework situations that have occurred since 1 January 2020.

The circular does not affect the rulings in force.

Do you have any legal questions about employers' compensations for homework or their application? Then please contact our legal consultants at legalpartners@partena.be.

Sources: Circular 2021/C/20 on employers' compensations for homework, https://eservices.minfin.fgov.be/myminfin-web/pages/fisconet#!/document/c4b263eb-091c-4a11-8ad0-24e2b11bb7db, 26 February 2021; Instructions from the NSSO (4 March 2021): https://www.socialsecurity.be/employer/instructions/dmfa/fr/latest/intermediates