BICYCLE SCHEME

Since 2007, employees of Breda University of Applied Sciences (hereafter abbreviated as BUas) have
been offered an opportunity to make use of a trade-in bicycle scheme. This scheme allows an employee
to accept a salary sacrifice in exchange for a tax-free allowance to buy a bicycle. To be eligible for this
scheme, employees had to meet various conditions that were mostly laid down in fiscal legislation that
was applicable at the time.

Meanwhile, fiscal legislation has been changed in such a way that there are no fiscal grounds for
maintaining the bicycle scheme any longer.

Furthermore, BUas is heading for a new Campus. Important starting points of Campus developments
are that it should be a ‘green’ campus, on which car parking space will be limited. Therefore, it is
important that employees will be offered alternative modes of transport to using their own car for
commuting purposes. Apart from public transport being encouraged, riding a bike is also an interesting
alternative to driving. As a result of recent developments of E-bikes and Speed bikes (45 km),
opportunities to bridge distances have increased enormously.

To encourage employees to buy a bicycle (or E-bike or Speed bike) for commuting purposes, the trade-
in scheme was updated and expanded and took effect as of 1 April 2017.

When an employee trades in salary, this will be laid down in an addendum to his/her employment
contract. The possibility for employees to have parts of gross salary converted into a tax-free allowance
is at the core of the trade-in scheme.

Consequences of salary sacrifice

Taking part in the trade-in scheme with regular gross salary sacrifice will affect the amount of holiday
allowance and end-of-year bonus. Since gross salary decreases, the basis for calculating the holiday
allowance and end-of-year bonus of the wage period in which salary is exchanged will also decrease.

Trading in parts of the regular gross salary of January also decreases the pension basis in the year of
salary sacrifice. Because the pension basis for the entire year is based on the January salary, it is not
advisable to submit a request for salary sacrifice based on gross salary for January.

Conditions
To be eligible for this bicycle scheme, employees must meet certain conditions:
▪ Exchanging (parts of) salary for a tax-free allowance needs to be laid down in an addendum to the
employment contract of the employee concerned. To this end, use the form ‘Bicycle Exchange
Scheme for Commuting purposes’ in HR2day. The employee concerned needs to accept any
adverse effects.
▪ The following items are eligible for exchange:

1
 o Purchase price of bicycle/E-bike/speed bike;
o Accessories such as extra lock, rain clothing, saddlebags, upgrade of battery;
o The premium of an insurance taken out for a bike/E-bike/speed bike1.
▪ The maximum amounts that can be exchanged:
o for a bicycle: € 1,250
o for an E-bike: € 1,750
o for a speed bike: € 2,250
▪ The amounts stated hold for purchasing costs of a bicycle/E-bike/speed bike and accessories
together. The exchange amount will be raised by the costs of insurance.
▪ It is not allowed to exchange (parts of) salary already paid out. It is impossible to exchange (parts
of) salary with retrospective force for fiscal reasons.
▪ An application for taking part in the BUas Bicycle Scheme needs to be submitted within 6 months
after the bicycle/E-bike/speed bike was bought.
▪ The following gross salary parts can be exchanged:
o gross salary
o holiday allowance
o end-of-year bonus
o other (incidental) gross remuneration
▪ Employees can trade in the salary to buy a bicycle/E-bike/speed bike once every five years.
▪ The employee needs to use the bicycle/E-bike/speed bike on at least 2 days a week to cycle to work.
▪ Emloyees can offset (parts of) salary to buy a bicycle that is structurally used for a part of the
commuting route, for example to cycle from home to the railway station.

Additional conditions
Employee needs to submit a copy of the invoice of the bicycle/E-bike/speed bike, accessories and
insurance. The copy must be dated and registered in the employee’s name.

To apply for the BUas Bicycle Scheme fill in the application form in HR2day.

When applying, employee declares he/she knows about the adverse effects of decreasing his/her salary
(as stated on the application form) and also declares he/she agrees to these adverse effects. The
employee indemnifies employer against these adverse effects.

The BUas bicycle scheme will be effective from 1 April 2017.

Adverse effects of exchange in the framework of the Bicycle Scheme

Trading in (parts of) gross salary for a tax-free allowance has the following consequences:
▪ Decreasing gross monthly salary results in the holiday allowance and end-of-year bonus being
decreased proportionally;
▪ Reducing (parts of) gross salary also affects benefits related to salary in the context of social benefits
in as far as the maximum daily salary is not exceeded:
o Unemployment Benefit (WW)

1
Speed bike insurance is similar to moped insurance and the premium is to be paid every year. The premium is eligible for
exchange for max. 5 years. To this end, the employee needs to submit the premium invoice every year.
2
 o Universities of Applied Sciences Enhanced Unemployment Scheme (BWRHBO)
o Work and Income (Capacity for Work) Act (WIA)
▪ In the case of reduction of gross monthly salary for January , the pension-providing income for that
year will be reduced. This will have consequences for building up:
o ABP multi-option pension
o Surviving Dependants’ pension
o Disability pension
o IP Aanvullingsplan (IPAP)

Implementation
The employee:
▪ buys the bicycle/E-bike/speed bike, accessories and insurance he/she requires and pays the
invoices to supplier(s);
▪ declares by submitting the form via HR2day that he/she will use the bicycle/E-bike/speed bike
sufficiently (at least 2 days a week) for commuting purposes by stating the travelling distance to be
cycled and the number of days on which it will be used to cycle to work;
▪ attaches the invoice(s) in the application form in HR2day. The HRM Office is entitled to ask for the
original invoice for verification.

The HRM Office will amend the employment contract and present it to the employee concerned.

Upon receipt of the signed Amendment of employment contract the HRM Office pays out the tax-free
allowance and reduces (parts of) gross salary by the same amount.

All documents will be added to the online personnel file in salary administration.