New flat-rate amounts for foreign business trips since 15 February 2023
May 2023 – A new list of flat-rate per diem allowances for foreign business trips was published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 15 February 2023. You can pay these new per diems tax-free to your employees for the expenses they incur during a foreign business trip. It is the first time in five years that these amounts have been adjusted.
The amounts of flat-rate per diem allowances that a company may pay to employees or company managers who make a foreign business trip have been published in the Belgian Official Gazette. In principle, these amounts are reviewed annually, yet they were already unchanged since July 2018.
These allowances are primarily for staff members and delegates of the FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation who travel abroad for an official assignment or serve on international committees.
The tax authorities accept that you can grant these daily amounts - which are set per country - tax-free to employees and company managers, as a lump-sum contribution to costs proper to the employer (applicable in the private sector).
The fixed lump sums cover the following costs:
Lunch and dinner expenses
Drink and snack costs
Local transport costs
Telephone communication costs
Costs for other minor expenses
If your company takes out expenses that include meals, the flat rates should be reduced by the following percentages:
35% when expenses are reimbursed for a midday meal
45% if costs are reimbursed for an evening meal
As an employer, do you reimburse small expenses or costs for breakfast? Then - unlike in previous years - no pro-rata reduction of the lump sum is required.
Please note: if the employee's or manager's travel is part of the normal daily professional activity, the administration judges that these lump sums do not apply.
