Payroll Newsletter Q3 2023

Changes to the work bonus as of July 2023 – All employees (and all JLC’s) who are subjected to the normal SSC of 13,07%

What is the work bonus?

The work bonus is a reduction of the employee’s social security contributions and is processed on the employee’s payslip on a monthly basis.

This reduction has been implemented as of January 2000 Iin order to guarantee a higher net wage for those employees in a lower monthly wage scale.

All employees in the private and public sector subject to the standard employee social security contributions of 13,07% are eligible for the work bonus.

What has changed?

In July 2023, the wage scales and height of the reductions to be used in the monthly calculations of the work bonus have been increased.

Please find below an overview of the current data to be used in the calculation for the work bonus.

July 2023 data – White collar workers

July 2023 data – Blue collar workers

What does the employer have to do?

Nothing is required from the employer. The work bonus is automatically calculated and processed by your payroll provider. For more information on this matter, do not hesitate to contact your payroll consultant.

Conversion of eco vouchers of 2023 before October 31, 2022

The collective labour agreement concerning eco vouchers for employees falling under Joint Labour Committee 200, has been concluded for an indefinite period. Consequently, as an employer, in order to be compliant with Belgian law, in principle, you will have to grant eco vouchers to your employees again in (June) 2024.

However, it is also possible to reward your employees by granting another equivalent benefit instead of eco vouchers. Another equivalent benefit can be e.g. the implementation of meal vouchers or increasing the nominal value of the current meal vouchers, implementation of a collective medical expense / hospitalization insurance, …

The implementation process depends on the presence or absence of a trade union delegation within your company. Employers who want to convert their eco vouchers of 2023 into another equivalent have time until October 31, 2022.

In case you would like our advice or assistance relating to this conversion, please contact us at payroll@mazars.be.

New type Dimona ‘ALT’ for students

To be able to identify the alternating courses and to link the appropriate social treatment to it, a new type of Dimona ‘ALT’ will have to be used for all students in alternating courses.

For training agreements for which a Dimona type 'OTH' has already been executed and which do not expire before September 1, 2023, a new Dimona 'ALT' does not have to be executed as long as the agreement for which the original Dimona 'OTH' (= general Dimona type) was executed does not expire. When the training agreement is renewed, however, the 'ALT' type must be used.

This will be applicable in all regions of Belgium as of September 2023.

Purchasing power bonus

In light of the corona crisis and the energy crisis, a new Act of 24 May 2023 on the purchasing power bonus, has entered into force.

Employers who have achieved good results in 2022 can grant a bonus to their employees in 2023.

This bonus may not exceed €500 for companies that have made high profits and €750 for companies that have made exceptionally high profits (subject to confirmation by law).

To know what is meant by ‘high’ and ‘exceptionally high’ profits, it is advised to wait for the sectoral negotiations and see what conditions will be imposed in your sector.

If there is no sectoral CLA, the purchasing power bonus can be granted via a company CLA. The employer must justify the good results achieved during the crisis year 2022.

If there is no trade union delegation in the company, or if it concerns a category of staff for which no company CLA is usually concluded, the granting of the purchasing power bonus can also be regulated by an individual agreement.

The purchasing power bonus must be granted by electronic or paper cheque.

The bonus may already be officially granted from June 1, 2023, but the details will have to wait for the result of the sectoral negotiations.

Legislation on the social elections 2024 voted on

The next social elections to designate employee representatives on works councils and committees for prevention and protection at work will take place from May 13 to 26, 2024.

The legislation that will administer these social elections was approved in Parliament.

This law will soon be published and makes mainly the following changes within the existing regulations:

• the possibility of individual suspension of the election procedure is clarified;
• the conditions on voting rights for temporary workers are modified and a legal basis for clear data exchange between temporary office and user is provided;
• alternative means of summoning voters as well as remote electronic voting are facilitated;
• a legal framework is provided for the further digitalization of some procedural steps, with a view to administrative simplification. Therefore, new model forms are attached.

In addition, the law commits to gathering additional statistical material regarding the voting rights of temporary workers and in the area of gender equality.

Telework in Europe: New official Framework Agreement: Signing of the Framework Agreement

European Member States have now officially issued the Framework Agreement on the application of Article 16 (1) of Regulation (EC) No. 883/2004 in cases of habitual cross-border telework. The purpose of this agreement is to bring an appropriate response to the increase in telework in Europe following the Covid-19 pandemic.

This Framework Agreement shall enter into force on 1 July 2023 as long as at least two States have signed it.

As a reminder, please note that until 30 June 2023, we were still in a period of tolerance during which the physical presence of a person is not taking into account to determine the competent state to levy the social security contributions.

The purpose of this Framework Agreement is that it enables an employee who carries out habitual cross-border telework in Europe to remain subject to the legislation of the State in which its employer has its registered office or place of business, although this person teleworks in its State of residence for less than 50% of its total working time.

Reading in detail the new Framework Agreement, it mentioned amongst others that:

• It is not applicable to self-employed persons;
• It does not cover activity other than telework pursued in the State of residence of the employee and real activity in the State where the employer has its registered office;
• The cross-border telework must be agreed between employer and employee formally or informally. The request for the application of the Framework Agreement (which will be based on art 16. of Regulation (EC) No. 883/2004 agreement) must be made in consent between both parties.
• Such agreement made between the State of residence of the employee and the State in which the employer has its registered office will be valid for 3 years (with extensions possible upon request) and the duration will be specified in an A1 certificate.

Based on the above, we remind you that as from July 2023, outside the scope of this Framework Agreement on cross border telework, the general rule to determine the competent social security State will apply again.

According to the EU Regulation on social security Nr. 883/2004, an employee is subject to the social security system of the State in which his employer is located.

In case of activities in two or more Member States (simultaneous employment), the employee is subject to the social security system of the State of residence provided the employee works more than 25% in the State of residence. If this is not the case, a decision tree has to be verified to determine the applicable social security regime.

As a recent development, the UK authorities (HRMC) confirmed that UK will NOT, for now, be opting into the new Social Security Framework Agreement for new teleworkers. So, for now the general rules as stated in the EU withdrawal agreement are applicable in employment situations involving the UK.

Furthermore, you can find hereafter a list of the countries which have already signed the Framework Agreement (overview based on the situation at June 30, 2023) and will apply the agreement as from July 1 2023: Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Czech Republic Austria, Netherlands, Slovakia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Norway and Portugal.

In case you have employees teleworking abroad or you are a foreign employer with staff teleworking in another EU member state, please reach out Stijn Sablon (Stijn.sablon@mazars.be) or Bart Van Laere (bart.vanlaere@mazars.be).

Mileage allowance – update

A mileage allowance can be paid to employees to cover the costs of professional travel of employees by using their private car (or motor). The employer can opt to pay these costs via a fixed amount per professional kilometer. This amount is exempted from both Belgian social security contributions (employee + employer) and Belgian wage withholding taxes, if the
necessary conditions are fulfilled.

The fixed amount of the mileage allowance which is accepted by the Belgian social security and tax authorities has again decreased. The maximum amount is now 0,4237 EUR/km as of July 1, 2023 until September 30, 2023 (before 0,4246 EUR/km).

The decrease of the maximum fixed amount is already the second decrease of 2023, following the decrease in April 2023.

Increase of the CO2 contributions as from July 1st, 2023

As part of the greening of mobility, the government decided that the CO2 contribution will be increased from 1 July 2023.

From 1 July 2023, the CO2 solidarity contribution that you are liable to pay as an employer for the vehicles you provide to your employees will be increased in accordance with the following rules:

For company vehicles purchased, rented or leased as from 1 July 2023:

The CO2 contribution will be multiplied by the following coefficients:

From :          Increase factor / coefficient :
01/07/2023   X 2.25
01/01/2025   X 2.75
01/01/2026   X 4.00
01/01/2027   X 5.50

In addition, the (non-indexed) amount for the minimum solidarity contribution, which applies to electric cars for example, will also be increased. That increase will not take effect until Jan. 1, 2025:

From :           Increase factor / coefficient :
Currently        20.83 EUR
01/01/2025    23.41 EUR
01/01/2026    25.99 EUR
01/01/2027    28.57 EUR
01/01/2028    31.15 EUR

For company vehicles purchased, rented or leased before 1 July 2023:

The above-mentioned increase is not applied to company cars purchased, leased or rented before July 1, 2023. The CO2 contribution must not be multiplied by a coefficient. It is calculated solely on the basis of the current formula:

The date to be considered in determining whether the company vehicle is purchased before or after 1 July 2023 is the date of the purchase order for the vehicle, not the date of delivery or registration.

If the vehicle is not purchased by the employer, the date of conclusion of the leasing contract will be decisive.

Mandatory bicycle allowance as from May 1st 2023

As of 1 May 2023, all private sector employees who cycle to work will be entitled to a bicycle allowance (under certain conditions). Until now, this was not the case in all sectors. A more general right to a bicycle allowance has now been established in a new collective labour agreement, CLA no. 164.

In order to encourage commuting by bicycle, the National Labour Council has decided that employees of the concerned companies are entitled to a bicycle allowance of 0.27 EUR per kilometre as from 1 May 2023.

This allowance is exempt from social security contributions and taxes and will be indexed annually. The employer must grant a bicycle allowance up to a maximum distance of 40 kilometres per day (20 kilometres there and 20 kilometres back).

If it was not compulsory in your sector to give a bicycle allowance until now, you will as a rule have to do so from 1 May 2023. In that case, ask your employee who regularly travels by bicycle to sign a sworn statement and inform your Payroll consultant monthly about the bicycle allowance.

New bank account number for the payment of the wage withholding tax

The Belgian tax authorities have changed the bank account number for the monthly or quarterly payments of the Belgian wage withholding tax.

In the past, the Belgian tax authorities had 3 bank account numbers in function of the language or region where the company is located in Belgium. As from June 22, 2023, only 1 bank account number is applicable (regardless of where the company is located).

The new bank account number is :

IBAN: BE85 6792 0036 3806
BIC: PCHQBEBB

Don’t miss the other deadlines!

Belgian social security contributions

Wage withholding tax

Belgian resident income tax return and Belgian non-resident income tax return

June 30th 2023:

Filing of the Belgian resident income tax return for assessment year 2023 (income year 2022) by paper.

July 15th 2023:

Electronic filing via Tax-on-Web of the Belgian resident income tax return for assessment year 2023 (income year 2022)

+ Electronic modification via Tax-on-Web of the received proposal of a simplified Belgian resident income tax return for assessment year 2023 (income year 2022) (if applicable).

September 30th 2023:

Electronic filing of the Belgian resident income tax return for assessment year 2023 (income year 2022) if filed by proxy.

In the course of the 4th quarter 2023:

Filing of the Belgian non-resident income tax return for assessment year 2023 (income year 2022). The exact deadline has not yet been published by the Belgian tax authorities.

If you wish to receive more information or assistance on the topics above, please don’t hesitate to contact us.