Information about the personal use of company mobile phones

The government is currently conducting negotiations on two bills for the social legislation to consider the use of company mobile phones for private purposes as salary (*), just like, say, the personal use of a company car, a company computer or an Internet subscription via your employer are considered benefits in kind.

In this document we would like to inform you of what exactly this proposal entails and how you can respond to it. As it happens, Belgacom makes various free tools available to you which allow you to manage the costs and personal contributions for your mobile fleet in an optimal way. This is more advantageous for you and for your employees!

Statutory regulation

The Council of Ministers has already established the way in which the costs for the personal use of a mobile phone which is provided or financed in full or in part by the employer can be taken into account in the social security contributions (*).

The proposal is the result of efforts made by the social partners and was presented to the Council of Ministers by the Minister of Social Affairs, Public Health and Environment, Laurette Onkelinx and the Minister of Employment, Joelle Milquet. First and foremost, it stipulates that if the employer applies a system which is able to distinguish personal from professional use of mobile phones, this arrangement counts for breaking down the costs. Private use of mobile phones, which the employer does not cover, is considered to be salary.

Under this proposal, where employers do not use such a system, the fixed amount for the personal costs of employees using the mobile phone will be €12.50 per month and considered as salary. This means that the normal employer and employee contributions are due on this fixed amount.

In practice

Therefore, if you as an employer cannot separate professional from personal use of your company mobile phones, the company phone will be considered as salary for your employees to a value of €150 per year (€12.50 per month). The usual employer and employee contributions are payable on this amount: a 33% contribution for the employer and a 13.07% contribution for the employee.

If you as an employer are able to separate professional and personal use of company mobile phones you will avoid having to pay these amounts. Proximus Budget Manager or Proximus Private Use lets you split these uses simply and at your discretion.

It is recommended that employers request a tax agreement from the competent supervisory entity, based on the user's profile.

Proximus Budget Manager or Proximus Private Use

Thanks to these Proximus services your employees pay for communications which cannot be classified as professional communications. They simply keep the same mobile phone and mobile number.

Both the employer and the employee receive a bill:

As the employer you are billed for the professional communications.
Private communications are charged on a separate bill which is sent to the employee.

The advantages for employees:

Your employees use the company's mobile phone and number. They do not, therefore, have to purchase a second phone.
They enjoy a business discount rate for calls and data traffic made for private purposes.
Privacy: private communications are billed to your employees. They are not included on the company's bill.
They will not be considered as as a tax benefit in kind, so there will be no personal contributions.

Proximus Budget Manager

Proximus Budget Manager is the ideal solution to perfectly master and reduce your mobile telephony and mobile data costs. It allows you to determine precisely the amount you spend on mobile communications for every employee with a mobile number. You pay only the pre-established amount that you wish to cover yourself, per type of call or per call category. If your employees exceed that amount or use services which you do not cover, they will receive a separate bill, sent directly to their home address.

You can choose between following split-billing methods:

A fixed monthly rate per user
A percentage with a maximum amount
A contribution per user group
A fixed amount per type of use

Proximus Private Use

Proximus Private Use is designed for customers with a Proximus Virtual ProxiNet solution. The billing is split on the basis of all usage costs, not just national call costs. Private Use lets you split the following services into company and private bills:

National, international and roaming calls
Data traffic (SMS, MMS)
Multimedia services (Vodafone Live!, ring tones, images)
GPRS (Mobile Internet, WAP)

You can choose between three different methods to differentiate the costs:

By using a code
Or using pre-established authorized lists (with national and international numbers) and User Profiles
Or applying time-based billing, i.e. using schedules.

(*) One of these two bills (Royal Decree amending the Royal Decree of 28 November 1969 for the implementation of the law of 27 June 1969 amending the decree law of 28 December 1944 concerning the social security of workers) has been adapted by the government but not yet published and the date on which it is due to enter into force is not yet known. Negotiations are still ongoing on the other bill.

This document is provided purely for information and does not create any obligations on the author's part.