A tax-deductible personalised number plate?
June 2022 – The name of your company as a number plate on your vehicle... Great publicity. It's possible for 1,000 euros. But what does the taxman think?
What is allowed and what is not?
Did you know that by the end of 2021, 11 021 personalized plates were already reserved? This compares with 7 976 in 2020 and only 5 949 in 2018. The rules of the game are relatively simple:
The personalised combination must always contain at least one letter. A plate consisting of numbers only is therefore not allowed. A plate with letters only is, however, possible.
The personalised plate has nine slots, one of which is already in use (with the embossed seal on the left of the plate). This leaves a maximum of eight free spaces.
The letters or groups of letters are separated from the numbers or groups of numbers by a dash. The dash also occupies one space.
Certain combinations are not allowed. Combinations containing the letters CD, X, Y, Z or TX are not permitted, as they may cause confusion with other official plates. For the same reason, combinations such as JAN-4444, AXEL-333, 007-BOND and 2014-BEL (three or four letters or numbers in combination with four or three numbers or letters respectively) are not permitted, as they may cause confusion with ordinary plates.
You can check whether your dream combination is still available and permitted on the website https://mobilit.belgium.be/fr.
What about the taxman?
A personalised plate costs 1,000 euros (plus 30 euros administration fee).
What if you have your company name (or part of it) on the number plate? Is the 1 030 euros then tax deductible? The question was raised in the margin of a parliamentary question.
To say that the minister is reluctant is an understatement. According to him, it is generally difficult for the taxpayer to prove that the expenditure of 1 030 euros was made or incurred for the purpose of acquiring or retaining taxable professional income, as prescribed in the 1992 Income Tax Code. He fails to see how such expenses could be advertising.
What do you mean, not an advertisement?
The Minister probably does not have much imagination. If a company director has the name of his company written on the number plate of his company car, why would that not be advertising? What is the difference between a sticker with the company's name on the car door and the company's name on the number plate? Think, for example, of the undertaker who drives around with "personalised" hearses and passenger cars. Or the tour operator who customises the number plates on his coaches. Or the garage owner who gives his replacement cars a personal touch.
The minister's response is a godsend for the administration, which will thus be able to challenge an expense that may nevertheless be of a professional nature. What other reason could an entrepreneur have for putting the name of his company on his number plate? We can only hope that the tax authorities have understood this better.
