Making a company bicycle available: administrative changes ahead!

There are changes if you make company bicycles available to your employees or company directors. From the 2024 income year, you will have to mention the value of this bicycle benefit on the tax form.

Background to the situation

Making available a company bicycle is a benefit of any kind that is exempt from social security contributions and from the calculation of withholding tax, provided that your employee uses the bicycle to commute to and from work. As this benefit is exempt, until now it did not have to appear on the tax form of your employees and company directors.

When it comes to personal income tax, however, a distinction needs to be made between your employees or company directors who opt for the flat-rate deduction of business expenses and those who justify their actual business expenses. In fact, only employees or company directors who opt for the flat-rate deduction of business expenses benefit from this exemption.

As from the 2025 tax year (income year 2024), although the provision of company bicycles remains a benefit exempt from withholding tax, the amount of this benefit must appear on tax forms 281.10 (employees) and 281.20 (company directors). This information on the tax form applies to all your employees/company directors, whether or not they have opted for the flat-rate deduction. The amount of the benefit will also be shown on the individual account.

For whom?

This new measure applies to all company bicycles, both those you make available to your employees and those your staff lease as part of a cafeteria plan. This measure also applies to bicycles purchased or leased in previous years but which you are still making available.

How do you determine the value of the benefit?

When a company bicycle is made available free of charge to your employee or company director, you need to determine the amount of the resulting benefit of any kind.

To do so, the following factors must be taken into account:

• Nature of the offer

Determining the benefit obtained by the beneficiary depends on the goods and services provided free of charge: bicycle, electric bicycle, accessories, repairs, maintenance, insurance, etc.

• Scope of the offer

The benefit of any kind will differ depending on whether the beneficiary has the bicycle at his disposal in a permanent or in a limited way. If the provision is permanent, the benefit must be determined on an annual basis. If, on the other hand, the provision is limited, the benefit must be determined taking into account the frequency and duration of use, if applicable, per day, per week or per month. If the bicycle is not allocated to a specific employee, but the employee may use it whenever he or she wishes, the provision should be considered as permanent.

When the permanent provision does not cover a full year, because it starts or ends during the year, the benefit calculated on an annual basis is reduced pro rata temporis.

• Value of the offer

The benefit of any kind will vary according to the value of the bicycle and its accessories and the cost of the services provided.

In all cases, the amount must include VAT.

It is therefore up to you to assess the benefit at its real value for the beneficiary, so that it corresponds to the savings made by the beneficiary, based on the factual circumstances of each specific situation.

The FPS circular provides some examples of how to determine the value of the benefit linked to the allocation of a company bicycle:

Example 1

An employer leases a bicycle and makes it permanently available to his employee. The employee has use of the bicycle at home all year round.

The benefit can be determined on the basis of the cost to you. In principle, this is the lease you pay for the whole year.

Example 2

An employer leases a bicycle. The bicycle belongs to a pool and is not allocated to a specific employee. The bicycle is made available to the employee during the entire year whenever he or she wishes.

The benefit can be determined on the basis of the cost to you. In principle, this is the lease you pay for the whole year.

Example 3

An employer leases a bicycle and makes it punctually available to his employee. The bicycle belongs to a pool and is not allocated to a specific employee. The employee must share the bicycle with other employees, so that it is not available whenever he or she wishes, but rather, for example, 2 days during the week and 1 weekend per month.

The benefit can be determined on the basis of the cost to you. In principle, this is the lease you pay, to which a pro rata may be applied according to the number of days of actual use by the employee.

BAK = lease x ((2 days x 52 weeks) + (2 days x 12 months)) / 365 days (or 366 days for a leap year).

Example 4

An employer buys an electric bicycle and makes it permanently available to his employee (value: €3,000) + accessories (value: €500). The employer covers the cost of repairs and maintenance (contract for €80 per year). The employee has use of the bicycle at home all year round.

The benefit can be determined on the basis of the purchase price of the bicycle and accessories spread over 5 years, i.e. the economic life of the bicycle, plus the cost of the repair and maintenance contract.

BAK = (€3,000 + €500 = €3,500) / 5 = €700 per year. Maintenance and repair contract (€80 per year). Total = €780

If the bicycle is made available from 1 July 2024, the amount of the benefit of any kind will be apportioned as follows:

Tax year 2025 (income 2024): €780 x 184/366 = €392.13

Tax year 2026 (income 2025) and following: €780

Example 5

An employer buys an electric bicycle and makes it permanently available to his employee (value: €3,000) + accessories (value: €500). The employer covers the costs of repairs, maintenance and insurance, so that the employee does not have to bear any costs. The employee has use of the bicycle at home all year round.

The benefit may correspond to the lease that you would have had to pay if you had taken out a lease offering a similar service.

And at the level of social security contributions?

The provision of a bicycle is not considered as remuneration for the national social security office, provided that the bicycle is actually used by your employee for commuting to and from work.

Coming into effect

This new obligation to mention company bicycles made available by the company applies from the 2024 tax year, so tax forms drawn up at the beginning of 2025 will be affected for the 1st time.

What do you have to do?

If you think you may be affected by this measure, please contact your payroll consultant to let him or her know the value of the benefit for your employees and/or company directors who use a company bicycle.

A mailing containing practical information will be sent to you shortly.

If you would like legal assistance, please contact our Legal Partners at legalpartners@partena.be.

Source: Circular 2024/C/22 on the exemption of the bicycle allowance and the benefit resulting from making available a company bicycle as well as the professional expenses related to the use of a bicycle for commuting to and from work.