At the beginning of the month, it was announced that unlimited telework for cross-border workers will come to end on 1 July. Those living outside of the country they work in fall under the social security system of their country of residence if they work more than 25% of their total working time at home. They are also taxed in their country of residence if they work more than a certain number of days per year at home (19 for Germans, 29--soon to be 34--for French and 34 for Belgians). These quotas were frozen during the health crisis by agreements that were regularly extended.

However, France, Germany and Belgium have decided not to extend the exception beyond 30 June. There is nothing new on the subject of taxation: the agreements end on 30 June, and frontier workers who decide to telework beyond their quota, if their employer allows them to do so, will pay income tax in their country of residence.

While the social security ministry confirmed to Delano's sister publication Paperjam that the bilateral agreements had not been extended on 8 June, an agreement on an EU level has since been reached.

“At the administrative commission for the coordination of national social security schemes, an agreement was reached to create a transitional period until 31 December for the teleworking of border workers,”statedBruno De Pauw, from the Belgian National Social Security Office, in a post on his Linkedin account. This information was confirmed in a publication by , which cites a meeting of the European Commission on 14 June.

A tolerance

The Commission had not yet confirmed the information to Paperjam when this article was published. However, Luxembourg's social security ministry said that, “following exchanges within the administrative commission, it was agreed at European level to apply an administrative tolerance on this subject until the end of the year. The exceptional social security provision not to take into account teleworking days linked to the crisis will indeed end on 30 June. However, a transitional period of administrative tolerance will be applied until 31 December 2022.”

It remains to be seen whether the European Union will decide, by then, to definitively review this 25% quota, as requested by the Belgian MP and mayor of the municipality of Attert, Josy Arens, for example.

The European Commission confirmed the information to Paperjam after publication of this article.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.