Growing gap between travel reimbursement and travel expenses
One in five workers fear financial hardship if the employer does not increase the travel allowance to compensate for rising fuel prices. In addition, 16 percent of workers say they will look for another job where the travel costs are sufficiently compensated if the current employer refuses, concludes HR service provider Visma Raet after its own research.
According to the law, employers may reimburse employees a maximum of €0.19 per kilometer tax-free. This is not mandatory. The majority of the respondents receive a travel allowance. If the travel allowance does not increase, almost a third of the respondents indicate that they will work from home more often in the coming weeks. According to Visma Raet, especially for employees who cannot work from home, such as people in care and education, the travel allowance should be carefully considered.
A solution could be to pay out more, because the €0.19 per kilometer and the €2 working from home allowance per day are not the maximum amount. Employers are then taxed for the part that exceeds the untaxed part. For example, employers can also give lease bicycles to staff, says Visma Raet. More than half of those surveyed believe that the government should provide employers with a subsidy to compensate their staff for rising fuel prices. Recently, the Association for Business Drivers (VZR) calculated that the travel allowance should now be €0.39 per kilometer to compensate for the current fuel prices and depreciation. The applicable tax-free allowance of €0.19 dates back to 2006.
Visma Raet interviewed more than 2,200 Dutch people. Of these, 77 percent sometimes go to work by car. 71 percent of the respondents receive a travel allowance. But 34 percent receive a work-from-home allowance.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl