Belgium Bike to Work schemes

A number of public administration bodies in Belgium have signed up to the national Bike to Work scheme. Under this incentive scheme, employees of participating organisations collect ‘bike points’ for every bike commute logged online; these points can then be exchanged for vouchers for a number of benefits, such as discount vouchers for high street stores. Participating organisations include (Bike to Work, 2014):

  • Administration communale de Molenbeek-Saint-Jean
  • Bruxelles Environnement – IBGE
  • European Commission
  • Executive Agency for Small and Medium Size Enterprises (EASME)
  • Stad Aalst
  • Stad Damme
  • Stad Diest
  • Stad Lier
  • Stad Mechelen
  • Stad ninove
  • stad Sint-Truiden
  • STAD TORHOUT - MILIEUDIENST
  • Stadsbestuur Geraardsbergen
  • Stadsbestuur Sint-Niklaas

There is also a wider Cycle to Work scheme in Belgium which provides a tax-free mileage allowance for bike commuters. Under the scheme, public administration bodies and organisations are entitled to pay their employees a tax-free allowance up to € 0.21 / km cycled / day (a total of up to 15 km / day or €3.15/a day) on their salaries. The incentive is limited to € 664.65 per person per year (for a person commuting the maximum 15km/day for an average of 211 working days within the year) (ECF, 2012a). Employers are then compensated for the wage supplement through a tax refund.

In 2010, the cycle to work mileage allowances paid in Belgium totalled € 43.4 million – 270,728 participants cycled the equivalent of over 206 million km by bike that year, Table 1 (ECF, 2012a). 

On this basis, the average incentive was € 160.3 a year per participating employee, with each employee cycling and average of 763.3 kilometres per year.

Table 1: Development of commuter cycling tax incentive in Belgium from 2006 -2010 (ECF, 2012a)

A similar scheme has also been introduced in the Netherlands where employers can pay a tax-free mileage allowance for bike commuters of up to € 0.15 / km cycled / day (Bike to Work, 2012b).