Evaluation of the benefit in kind of a mobile phone - The NSSO officially confirms the amount of 12,50 EUR per month but imposes its conditions!

The NSSO just published its new "administrative instructions", in which it officially confirms that the benefit in kind of a mobile phone can be evaluated at 12,50 EUR per month, but only if certain conditions are fulfilled.

The benefit in kind resulting from the private use of a mobile phone provided by the employer is often evaluated at 12,50 EUR per month, subject to social security contributions. This amount was confirmed by the NSSO in its internal, non-published guidelines.

In the new "Instructions" for the fourth quarter of 2014, the NSSO now officially confirms that this benefit in kind can indeed be evaluated at 12,50 EUR per month. It specifies that this evaluation includes the subscription, the communication costs, the device itself and the connection for mobile internet.

However, the NSSO imposes two conditions:

- the employer hasn't implemented a system to determine the true amount corresponding to the private use (such as a system of separate billing);
- there is not a "too big manifest disproportion" between the possibilities of the device (and therefore its price) and the professional tasks the worker is charged with.

Regarding this second condition, the NSSO gives the example of an IPhone worth 500 EUR which is put at the disposal of an employee who, for his work, only needs to be reachable by phone.

The NSSO doesn't specify what value it will take into account when one of those two conditions isn't fulfilled. However, we can assume that it will calculate the actual value of the benefit on the part of the recipient.

> Action point

Check if your employees dispose of a mobile phone of which the price and the possibilities are not out of proportion with the professional use that has to be made of it.