All employees will benefit from the 'bicycle allowance' in Belgium
All employees in Belgium will be able to benefit from the 'bicycle allowance' from 1 May.
In Belgium, the allowance per kilometer provided to only a portion of employees who cycle to work has been extended to benefit all employees.
A bicycle allowance of 0.27 euro per kilometer will be given to workers in all sectors that were previously exempted under the law, which came into force from 1 May.
This allowance has been provided to only 29 percent of employees to date.
In the country, where there were changes in the allowances according to the regions, employees with bicycles were paid an average of 0.24 euros per kilometer per kilometer. While the authorities underline that there will be no change in these appropriations, they emphasize that the 0.27 euro payment will be valid only for the sectors covered as of May 1.
While removing the requirement to work in a company with which a collective bargaining agreement has been signed, which is required to receive this payment, the conditions to be sought will include riding a bicycle for part or all of the distance between the employee's work and home.
In cases where the distance between work and home is over 40 kilometers round trip, the ceiling price for the total daily payment is determined as 10.8 euros. While 0.25 euro of the allowance received per kilometer in the first year is exempt from tax, tax will be charged from the entire allowance from the second year.
In a poll among Belgian employees, 29 percent of a million employees at 35,000 companies benefited from bicycle allowances last year. This rate was 16 percent in 2017.
