Belgium's extra-legal salary benefits are not universally applied, with employers mostly using them to compensate higher earners who lose out from the country's high rate of taxes on income.
Previous analysis shows that Belgium ranks at the bottom of the list of European countries for take-home pay on a gross salary of €100,000 – largely due to Belgium's high tax rate on income.
However, this analysis covers wages only and does not include extra-legal benefits and alternative forms of compensation, which can make a big difference.
The range of options is complex, the rules are frequently changing, and the trade-offs need careful thought. However, the difference to in-pocket pay can be significant and could amount to hundreds of euros after tax each month.
What are the common extra-legal benefits?
The most common types of extra-legal benefits, according to Belgium's National Social Security Office (ONSS), are meal vouchers, eco-vouchers and a car allowance for commuting.
Earners above the 90th percentile (roughly €80,000 gross a year) are more likely to receive benefits such as company cars, phone, internet and laptop allowances than those on lower wages, while those on lower wages are more likely to see their public transport commuting costs reimbursed.
What is offered depends on the employer, who decides which benefits to include in the package.
The options are not entirely cost-free for employers, who must balance increasing gross pay and employer tax contributions against the costs of introducing a new benefits scheme.
"These schemes are a necessary part of any package," Kenny Ransquin, a tax advisor for RSM Belgium, told The Brussels Times.
"Offering a remuneration package without any employer-specific benefits or costs would result in a high tax burden on employment income," he added.
RSM's calculations for The Brussels Times, as shown in the graph below, reinforce the importance of focusing on in-pocket rather than gross pay when comparing salaries in Belgium.
A single person earning a high gross salary can end up taking home less than a comparable person with a lower gross salary but with extra legal benefits applied to the maximum level.
Crucially, in this scenario, the employer would see no change in total employment costs, as the new costs are offset by social security contributions.
How do extra-legal salary benefits work?
Looking specifically at extra-legal benefits, there are typically four types, Ralph Janssen, a Partner at Deloitte, told The Brussels Times: common cash allowances, transport-based allowances, representation allowances, and bonuses.
The first type, common cash allowances, is a combination of "small things that can add up to a bigger impact," he explained.
These include meal vouchers (which can go up to €10 a day – free from tax and social security), eco-vouchers (€250 tax-free pro-rated), and hospitalisation insurance, which is an employer contribution and tax-free for the employee.
"Around 74% receive lunch vouchers," Yves Stox from Partena noted. "Whether you receive it or not depends on [your] business sector; sometimes it is obligatory, other times it is up to the company to decide."
The second type of benefit is mobility-based allowances.
Deloitte's Janssen explained the bicycle allowance, where employers can offer 37 cents per kilometre to employees who cycle to work, up to a maximum of €3,700 a year – free of taxes – but perhaps the most famous in Belgium is the car allowance scheme.
"Belgium is known as a country with a high use of company cars," said Janssen. This is a prized benefit, as employees can still use these cars for private purposes.
Essentially, the employer leases a car and makes it available to the employee; in doing so, the employer also gets a tax benefit depending on the number of cars leased.
However, employers can offer an alternative: a mobility budget, which expands options beyond a company car.
In that case, the employee gets the same budget, which they can spend on a company car or opt for a zero-emission option, such as public transport tickets, a bicycle, or having rental costs covered (if they live within a certain range of the office).
Credit: Belga/ Dirk Waem
Alternatively, the employee can take the budget as a lump sum, but must pay 38% social security contributions on the cash out.
The mobility allowance "cannot be more than a fifth of the employee's salary, and only people who previously had a company car can be offered this," Janssen said.
Ransquin noted that the mobility allowance has not really taken off (ONSS figures showed that in 2024, only 0.43% of employees received it), but he argued this might change: from 2027, employers with a company car scheme and over 50 employees will be obliged to offer it to anyone previously within the scope of an existing company car policy.
"Once certain employers are required to offer the mobility budget, we can reasonably expect the number of employees opting for the mobility budget to increase," he added.
A range of "representation allowances" make up Janssen's third type of benefits: costs reimbursed for performance of the role, such as those linked to working from home, including up to €164 for electricity and internet.
Employees can receive up to €250 to €300 a month, "which covers a combination of costs such as car costs and home office costs," said Janssen. "As long as they are not reimbursed on an itemised basis, you can get a flat reimbursement." Therefore, an upfront agreement with the tax authorities on details of the set-up is recommended.
The last type concerns bonus incentives, with several approaches available.
Of these, the warrant scheme is the most common one. Employers can set these up and offer them outside a collective bargaining agreement.
Under such a model, employers buy a short-term stock option from a financial institution and hand it to staff as a one-off bonus. These are exempt from social security contributions, and employees can quickly resell the warrant for cash rather than hold it as shares. Warrants are capped at 20% of overall pay.
Other bonus schemes include CCT90, which lets employers pay staff a one-off, non-recurring bonus tied to collective results or targets, rather than individual performance.
In 2026, 42% of employees received a CCT 90-linked bonus, according to a survey by Randstad. €4,255 is the maximum amount that can be paid out in these types of bonuses, and these are subject only to social security.
Separate stock option incentives, which are taxed as a lump sum, exist as well – even if they are used less frequently. "These are more used by start-up companies," said Janssen.
Employers can also transfer a share of profits, through a profit premium, which attracts tax and social security at 19%.
Another option is a one-off top-up to a specific employee's pension. Through these contributions, "employees pay 10% income tax and 5.55% social charges when the employee takes a lump sum," said Janssen. They must work until retirement age.
What should employers and employees consider?
The schemes should be considered by employers not just for salary optimisation; Partena's Stox explained that they also make sure people feel content with their remuneration. "Obviously people want cash, but they also want the choice," he said.
"Gradually, we see an increase in these so-called cafeteria plans, where employees pick and choose their package, within the boundaries set by the company," he said.
For employees who feel like they are not being fairly compensated, Stox suggested opening the conversation with their boss, "but also trying to understand the strategy of the company."
