Recently the social partners of Belgium’s largest joint committee for white-collar employees updated the JIC 200.
Bicycle Allowance
What is the change?
A mandatory bicycle allowance of €00.10 is now due to be paid to each employee per cycled kilometer. The maximum kilometers is 40 km per day round trip.
Who is eligible for this bicycle allowance?
The bicycle allowance is only due to employees who regularly use their bike to commute to their place of work and cannot be combined with other contributions to support the commuting travel, except for the employer contribution for public transport.
How does an employee qualify to receive the bicycle allowance?
Employees who wish to claim the bicycle allowance will need to provide their employer with a signed declaration stating they use their bike for commuting travel back and forth to the office.
Public Transport
What is the change?
An employer must now contribute to the cost of the employee’s use of public transport for commuting travel between home and work if the distance between home and work is at least 1 kilometer.
Before this change, the minimum distance was 3 kilometers.
Is all public transport covered for commuting travel?
An employer does not have to contribute to commuting travel if the employee travels by train.
What should employers do?
- Confirm which employees cycle to work
- Those who commute by bike, request a written declaration concerning their travel and the distance they cycle
- Confirm with those employees that commute by public transport-apart from the train- the distance between home and work and determine if they are entitled to a contribution to their costs for public transport
- Inform your payroll business partner if there are employees entitled to either a bicycle allowance or an employer contribution for public transport