Charging electric company cars at home: continued option for flat-rate reimbursement
July 2025 - Good news for SME entrepreneurs who are committed to electric company cars: the federal legislator continues to give you the choice of how to reimburse your employees' charging costs at home. The feared obligation to reimburse only the actual electricity costs from 2026 onwards has been definitively scrapped.
Instead, a recent tax circular confirms that the CREG flat rate will remain a valid option in the future.
This decision removes a lot of concerns for smaller companies that were daunted by the administrative burden of individual calculations per employee. What does this change mean for you as an entrepreneur in concrete terms? And what elements should you pay attention to?
Flat rate or actual cost? The choice is yours
Until recently, it was assumed that from 2026 onwards, companies would be obliged to reimburse the actual electricity costs incurred by employees who charge their electric company cars at home. This reimbursement would have to be verifiable in order to remain tax-free. Only then would it not be considered a taxable benefit in kind.
However, in June 2025, the current Federal Minister of Finance, Jan Jambon, decided to give companies the freedom to choose. The flat-rate reimbursement – based on the electricity tariff set by the CREG – will now be permanently allowed. This means that, as an employer, you can decide for yourself whether to opt for a fixed reimbursement or a reimbursement based on actual consumption.
Why SMEs benefit from flat-rate simplicity
For many SMEs, the flat rate is the simplest and most workable solution. Actual home charging costs vary greatly from employee to employee: the energy contract, the time of charging, any solar panels and the capacity tariff make it complex.
Individual calculations also require time-consuming administration, especially for companies that do not have their own IT solutions or specialised HR department. With a flat-rate reimbursement, you don't have to worry about that. After all, you pay a fixed amount per kWh charged, regardless of the employee's personal situation.
Tax experts therefore expect that many companies will now abandon their previous plans to switch to actual reimbursements.
What about employees with solar panels or fluctuating rates?
One point of discussion remains the situation of employees with solar panels. They often charge (partly) with their own generated electricity, for which no direct costs are incurred. However, the flat-rate reimbursement remains possible in this case as well. The recent circular does not make any distinction or exclusion for these cases, which provides legal clarity.
However, it remains important for you as an employer to communicate clearly with your employees. Some employees fear that the flat rate will put them at a financial disadvantage, especially since the rate is based on older – and often lower – electricity prices. Transparency and consultation can help lower that threshold.
Looking to the future: automatic systems on the rise
Although the flat-rate method is currently the most popular – especially among SMEs – experts point out that the future may be moving towards automatic real-time reimbursement. Charging stations and software packages already exist that link actual consumption to the employee's electricity contract, thereby automatically arranging reimbursement.
his technology is currently of particular interest to larger companies, but in the long term, SMEs could also evolve as the cost and complexity decrease.
