Those who no longer regularly cycle to the office on their company bicycle due to the corona crisis, do not have to worry that their bike will be taxed because they are working from home.

Tired of traffic jams, more and more employees are commuting (partly) by (electric) bicycle to work. Increasingly, they pedal those kilometers on a bicycle leased by the employer. An interesting formula for employees who would like to use a bicycle, but find the cost to purchase one themselves too high. The choice for an electric bicycle certainly comes with a hefty price tag of several thousand euros. By leasing, the employee can use that bicycle for commuting and after a few years buy it at its residual value.

Taxable benefit
If you also drive private kilometers with your company car, the tax authorities consider this to be a taxable benefit on which taxes should be paid. Not so with the company bicycle, provided that you regularly travel the home-work route by bicycle. "Due to the corona crisis, many offices have been closed and teleworking is the norm, which means that this condition cannot be fulfilled at the moment," said MP Jef Van den Bergh (CD&V). Because companies were wondering whether this has consequences for their bicycle policy, Van den Bergh raised the situation with Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V).

"The minister emphasized in his answer that teleworking during the corona crisis has no impact on the tax exemption from the provision of company bicycles to the employee," reports the CD&V MP.

Regularly
The law does not define the term "regularly". There must be a certain pattern and regularity. Going to work by bike once a year is not enough. But one day a week in the winter and three days a week in the other months is considered as effective use.

It is not easy for tax authorities or the employer to check whether an employee does indeed take his bicycle out of the stable regularly. Companies often work with a ‘declaration of honor’, in which the employee declares to cycle to work. Motivational schemes such as Bike To Work, in which cyclists earn points each time they cycle to work, are also a way of monitoring the actual kilometers they have cycled to work.

Source: De Tijd