What's changing in mobility as of 1st January 2025?

New year, new rules.

Mbrella lists the most important mobility changes. So you’ll be all set for 2025.

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1. Mobility budget

The yearly budget limits change as of January 1st, its minimum yearly amount is now 3.164€ and its maximum yearly amount is 16.875€. This means a mobility budget lower than 3.164€ needs to be raised to this amount while one higher than 16.875€ needs to be lowered to this amount. Besides this a TCO higher than the previous maximum of 16.293€ can potentially be raised in 2025 to the new maximum amount of 16.875€.

Make sure that none of your employees has a mobility budget higher than 1/5 of their total gross salary on January 1st.

2025 is also the last year that combustion engine cars are allowed within pillar 1 (under certain conditions) and in pillar 2 as rental or shared car. Starting 2026 all cars used will have to be emission free.

2. Taxation & company cars

Tax Deductibility in 2025:

• Electric and zero-emission vehicles: 100% tax-deductible, making them the most attractive option.
• Non-zero-emission vehicles: Maximum 75% deductible in 2025.
• Hybrid vehicles: In 2025, only electricity costs directly related to electric driving are fully deductible; other costs follow the rules for fossil fuel vehicles.

CO₂ Solidarity Contribution in 2025:

• Electric and zero-emission vehicles: Minimal contribution of €477.96 due to their zero emissions.
• Non-zero-emission vehicles: Contribution increases significantly based on CO₂ emissions and fuel type. The solidarity factor rises from 2.25 to 2.75, further widening the gap with zero-emission vehicles.

BIK in 2025:

• In 2025, the tax benefit for company cars with a combustion engine decrease further due to higher CO₂ coefficients. This makes fossil cars more expensive for employees. In contrast, electric company cars have no CO₂ emissions, leading to significantly lower BIK. The minimum BIK for the employee in 2025 is €1,650, this minimum is used for emission-free cars.

The European Commission concludes that the stated emissions of the plug-in hybrids are not reflecting their real-world usage. Plug-in hybrids, often emitting up to 3.5 times more CO₂ than claimed. The European Commission opposes new rules for the reporting of the CO₂ emissions of plug-in hybrids via the Euro 6e-bis Standard. This raises the Co2 value of plug-in hybrid cars, and thereby also raises the costs for employers and employees. This is due to higher BIK’s, CO₂-contributions, and reduced tax deductibility. This causes a future risk to choose a plug-in hybrid, as they are becoming significantly more expensive and less attractive.

3. Car taxes

Electric and hydrogen vehicles are currently exempt from road tax and registration tax in Flanders to encourage adoption. However, with the growing number of electric cars, the government faces declining tax revenues.

The Flemish government plans to introduce a tax on new electric vehicles, but implementation has been delayed due to the need for a calculation formula and agreements with other regions. There is no clarity yet on how the tax will be determined (e.g., based on power, weight, price, or consumption) or its cost to owners. It remains uncertain whether the tax will be introduced by 2025.

4. Reimbursement of home charging

Circular 2024/C/77 clarifies the tax treatment of reimbursed electricity costs for charging a company car at home. Employers can choose to reimburse the costs based on actual electricity costs or via a fixed rate per kWh set quarterly by CREG. For the first quarter of 2025, the rates are:

• Flemish Region: 28.22 eurocents/kWh
• Brussels Region: 32.94 eurocents/kWh
• Walloon Region: 32.56 eurocent/kWh

The employer may also decide to pay only the lowest CREG rate to all employees of the company for simplification purposes. Higher reimbursements than the above rates are not allowed. No additional BIK will be charged if the refund follows the above rules.

5. Office chargers

In 2025 Belgium introduced the obligation to implement charging stations in existing non-residential buildings. The obligation depends on the region the company operates. The following rules apply:

Flanders:

• Existing office parking (20+ spaces): Minimum 2 charging stations.
• New office parking (10+ spaces): Minimum 2 stations and infrastructure for every 4th parking space.
• Exception: No installation required if costs exceed 7% of renovation costs; costs below 7% must be implemented.

Wallonia:

• Office parking (10+ spaces): At least 1 charging station and infrastructure for every 5th parking space.
• Exception: Same 7% cost rule as Flanders, and when the company is a SME

Brussels:

• Office parking (10+ spaces): At least 10% of spaces must have charging points, with a minimum of 2 stations.

6. Public transportation

From 15 December 2024, travelers can travel from Brussels to Amsterdam 45 minutes faster thanks to the new Eurocity Direct train service. This high-speed connection, operated by NMBS and NS, complements the existing InterCity service, doubling the train options to the Netherlands. The Eurocity Direct completes the journey between Brussels-South and Amsterdam-South in just over two hours and runs 16 times daily, with stops at Antwerp-Central, Rotterdam-Central, Schiphol, and Amsterdam-South.

The expanded service strengthens Brussels-South's role as a European rail hub, offering 120 daily connections to destinations in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the UK, and beyond. To release these changes on a European level, domestic train trips in Belgium have also changed, sometimes causing fewer train service in smaller train stations. 

7. Allowances

The maximum quarterly reimbursement for business kilometres travelled by private car will be 0.4290 euros/km in the first quarter of 2025. Always check your sectoral Joint Commitee to know if you need to follow the yearly adaptation (0,4415 euros/km applicable until 30 June 2025) or this quarterly adaptation.

The bike allowance increased to 0,36 euros/km tax-free, with a yearly total maximum of 3.610 euros. On bike allowances on top of these figures you will need to pay social contributions and taxes. The bicycle allowance based on CAO 164 is also indexed to €0.29/km from 01.01.2025. A limit of 40 km per day applies here, as well as the yearly total maximum of 3.610 euros.

The forfait allowance for trips with own transport (scooter, on foot, own car etc.) increased to 500 euros/year tax-free.