Company card, personal spending: what it really costs

Nothing stops the director of a Belgian SRL/BV from paying for groceries with the company card. But every personal euro the company covers becomes a debt on their current account, and a debit current account has a price: 5.57% of taxable notional interest for 2025 income, down from 6.25% a year earlier.

The director's current account is the running tally of what you and your company owe each other. It's in credit when the company owes you, in debit when it's the other way round. Belgian accounting firms cover this from the balance-sheet angle; almost nobody covers the gesture that triggers it, which is tapping the company card at the till. Here's what it costs, and how to avoid it.

Can you pay a personal expense with the company card?

Yes, it's legal, and no, it isn't free. No Belgian rule prevents a company from covering a personal outlay of its director. The amount simply isn't a company cost: it becomes a receivable the company holds against you, booked on the current account.

The damage comes from accumulation. A weekend tank of fuel, a family streaming subscription, a pair of shoes: taken separately, each amount looks trivial. Over twelve months, a company card used without discipline builds a debit current account of several thousand euros, which the director discovers at year-end, when the accountant asks for a line-by-line explanation.

One detail to watch: the company cannot deduct these costs. Article 49 of the Belgian Income Tax Code restricts deductions to expenses incurred to obtain or keep taxable income. A personal expense becomes a disallowed expense, taxed at corporate income tax, and the VAT paid on it isn't recoverable either.

What happens to the expense in the company accounts?

It turns into an interest-free loan, and the Belgian tax office dislikes free loans. When a company advances money to its director without charging interest, the administration treats it as a benefit in kind under article 36 of the Income Tax Code.

That benefit isn't symbolic. It's added to the director's professional income, taxed at their marginal rate, often 50% in the top bracket, and subject to INASTI social contributions of roughly 20.5% below the first ceiling. One euro of benefit therefore costs around seventy cents in real terms.

In practice there are two clean exits: repay the company, or take the expense as remuneration in kind declared on a 281.20 form. The third route, doing nothing and hoping nobody looks, is the expensive one when an audit lands.

What does a debit current account actually cost?

The maths is simple and the number surprises people. The royal decree setting notional interest rates fixed 5.57% for 2025 income, after 6.25% for 2024. That rate applies to the average position of the current account over the financial year.

Take a director whose debit balance hovers around 6,000 € all year. The benefit in kind comes to 334.20 €. Added to income, taxed at 50% and hit with about 20.5% in contributions, those 334 € cost roughly 235 € in levies for a single year. And the charge repeats every year the account stays in debit.

What this means for you: a debit current account isn't a one-off fine, it's a subscription. I've seen directors discover a 12,000 € debit balance at the close of a first financial year, without ever feeling they had "taken" money from their company. They simply always had the same card in their pocket.

How is the average position calculated?

When the account hasn't moved abnormally during the year, the benefit is calculated by applying the annual rate to the average position: add the balance on the first and last day of the financial year, divide by two. When the account swings hard, the calculation runs month by month. Which is exactly why repaying before the closing date beats repaying mid-year.

Which business card separates personal from professional best?

None of them sorts your spending for you, but some make the mistake visible immediately. This is where pro neobanks are ahead of Belgian banking apps, while classic banks keep the edge on the accounting chain.

Verdict: Revolut Business and Qonto catch the anomaly as it happens, by chasing a receipt the moment the card is charged. KBC and BNP Paribas Fortis warn you about nothing, but deliver the CODA file most Belgian accounting firms expect, which speeds up the quarterly sorting. Neither Revolut Business nor Qonto provides that Belgian format natively.

Is a dedicated virtual card enough?

It solves traceability, not tax. Creating one virtual card for software subscriptions and another for travel instantly shows your accountant what is genuinely professional. But if you pay a personal expense with either of them, it ends up in exactly the same place: the current account, with the same notional interest.

How do you fix a personal expense already charged?

The sooner, the cheaper. Three routes exist, and they combine.

A personal transfer to the company account is the cleanest: you repay the amount, the current account returns to zero, and the benefit stops accruing from the following month. Offsetting against salary or a dividend due to you also works, provided the decision is documented. Finally, netting against costs you fronted for the company (a trip paid out of pocket, equipment bought on your personal card) reduces the balance by the same amount, as long as you kept the receipts.

Three mistakes that cost real money in an audit

The first is reclassifying a personal expense as a business cost after the fact to dodge the current account. An inspector who finds a supermarket receipt behind an "entertainment expenses" entry doesn't just reject that line, they read the rest of the file with sharper eyes.

The second is forgetting the VAT. Reclaiming VAT on a personal purchase triggers a revision plus a penalty, on top of the corporate tax deduction being refused. The same expense is paid for twice.

The third is letting it run. A debit current account that grows year after year eventually becomes the director's own liquidity problem: it has to be repaid one day, and the repayment usually comes through extra salary or a dividend, itself taxed.

To compare business accounts and cards side by side, our comparator breaks down the fees, and our business account for a company guide covers what opening one as an SRL/BV involves. Our analysis is written by Sophie Laurent, who spent eight years in a bank branch before comparing Belgian offers.

FAQ

The questions company directors most often ask when sorting through what went on the business card.