10 most frequently asked questions by employers

No, an employer can register without costs and use our platform and the documents we provide. An affiliated employer only receives an invoice when the first employee leases a bike. These are only the lease costs (including maintenance and insurance). We are therefore happy to support you in the promotion and communication of this scheme, in order to realize a successful bike scheme.

Each company can fill out and shape the scheme itself. Are you unable to figure this out? We will be happy to give you advice on how you can best offer the scheme. To give you an idea of what that might look like, we provide some examples below:

1. The company offers the lease bike scheme cost-neutral. This is possible because you can return the savings on social charges (€25 on average) to the employee by reinvesting them in the monthly lease cost. You can also reinvest the travel expenses that are removed when employees cycle to work, in the monthly lease costs. That way, the employer does not have to incur additional costs as a result of offering the company bike. Experience shows that even the cost-neutral offering is a nice incentive for the employee to take a company bike.

2. The company incentivises the arrangement by paying part, or all, of the monthly lease cost. This is the most common way of offering the bike scheme. On average, companies contribute between 30 and 50 euros. Your colleague pays 7% additional tax each month and possibly the remaining portion of the lease cost. This can be offered as a fringe benefit, as part of the mobility budget or from the lease car budget.

The bottom line is that your cycling employee may have to deal with two expenses:

• The monthly lease expense (plus service and maintenance costs).

• 7% additional taxable income. This expense is always for the employee, as compensation for the private use of the bike.

Most employers return any savings that occur to the employee; the travel allowance that expires will be converted into a (gross) contribution to the lease bike. For the savings on social charges The same applies. On average, an employer saves about €25 per month per employee in social security costs. In this way it is cost neutral for the employer and financially interesting for the employee. Lease a Bike has a white paper in which the social security costs savings are fully explained with sample calculations.

If an employer also has a budget to incur costs for the bike scheme, an employer will on average make its own contribution of about €30 - €40 per month per employee.

The tax-free kilometer allowance can be combined with the lease bike. That works like this:
for commuting kilometers with the lease bike, there is no entitlement to the untaxed kilometer allowance. However, you may continue to pay the mileage allowance for the kilometers covered by another means of transport – such as your own car or public transport. In addition, a lease bike may be combined with a lease car. Most employers convert the discontinued travel allowance into a gross contribution (not covered by the WKR), so that it remains financially interesting for the employee.

In order to easily deal with this administratively, Lease a Bike provides a bike statement in which this can be recorded, so that the employer only has to make a one-off adjustment to the salary administration.

Example:
Suppose, before the lease bike scheme, your colleague went to work in his own car five days a week. This colleague received a mileage allowance for this. Now that this colleague has a leased bike, your colleague goes to work by bike two days a week and by his own car three days a week. This means that you can continue to pay mileage allowance for three days a week. The employer can pay gross for the other two days.

An employer's contribution falls outside the WKR. The employer has the following choice:

• Gross contribution: falls outside the WKR - most employers do this.

• Net contribution: charged to the WKR.

The question is therefore whether you still have room in the WKR to include an employer's contribution. If so, that is of course a good thing, then an employee will receive the net contribution. If not, no problem! Then you make the contribution gross, which is what most employers do.

Administration:
To support you throughout the journey, we have developed a digital platform that you can use for free. Here you can arrange all processes and let all parties (the company where you work, all employees and the bike shop) come together to arrange everything. The administration is also a piece of cake: you can arrange most of it with the push of a button. Of course we are always there for you if you have any questions about the platform, so that you can enter the lease bike scheme carefree.

Payroll processing:

we also take care of payroll processing. You can easily download a salary export from the platform or have it sent to you monthly. This contains the amounts you need for processing (monthly lease amount & consumer recommended price of the bike for the addition). You arrange this once and then you don't have to worry about it anymore.

Our goal is to unburden you. That is why we provide all bikes that come from us with all-risk insurance and 24/7 roadside assistance as standard. Your colleague must choose between the following maintenance packages at a competitive rate:

• Basic package: reimbursed up to € 100 (incl. VAT) per year

• Standard package: reimbursed up to € 150 (incl. VAT) per year

•  Premium package: everything is reimbursed, so there are no risks (only available for e-bikes)

• Speed ​​pedelec package: reimbursed up to € 300 (incl. VAT) per year (including WA insurance)

The exact amount for the insurance depends on the price of the bike. The monthly service and insurance costs are included in the lease amount.

When an employee of the company leaves the company with an active lease contract, the agreements contained in the addendum come into effect. This document closes every employee, even before the lease bike can be selected.

We provide an example for an addendum. This states, for example, that the colleague who leaves employment must pay off the remaining lease installments net. In this construction, your company pays the remaining installments to the leasing company, after which these costs are allocated to the employee. Depending on the terms chosen by your employers, the employee has four options:

• The colleague who leaves the company, does NOT take over the bike and pays the remaining lease installments (excluding service and insurance costs).

• The colleague who leaves the company, does take over the bike and pays the remaining lease installments (excluding service and insurance costs) + the percentage of the purchase price.

• The employee can have the existing lease contract taken over by a colleague within the company.

• The colleague who leaves the company can take the existing lease contract with him to another company that is already connected or is willing to join.

It is also possible to use the bike for private use only. There is no set minimum for commuting use. We provide a document with which you can easily record the most important agreements with your employees via our platform, such as costs, responsibilities and early termination.

After 36 months, the employee will be given the first opportunity to take over the bike for the market value valid at that time (approximately 20% of the purchase price). The employee will receive more information about this 3 months before the end of the lease contract. The employee receives the takeover offer 4 weeks before the contract expires. If the employee chooses to take over the bike, they pay the takeover price directly to Lease a Bike.

The employee can also choose to return the bike free of charge at their local Lease a bike shop.