FACT GROUP

training vouchers

In general

Training vouchers are aimed at Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) with a maximum of 250 employed EFT-personnel (Equivalent Full Time), listed at the Social Security Services, and aimed at independent entrepreneurs who wish to augment the efficiency of their personnel.
The training courses can be as diverse as language courses, perfecting technical or technological skills, updating de degree of computer knowhow, etc.
The value of the workers is revaluated and their professional potential and capacities are optimised.
The use of training vouchers can never, under any circumstances, be cumulated with any other form of aid allocated by the Walloon Region, for the same training.
Training vouchers are system put in place by the Minister of Employment and Training to stimulate trainings within the Small and Medium sized Enterprises themselves, through an easy and rapidly accessible method of subsidisation.
One training voucher equals one hour of training for a worker. For the firm, the price of every voucher is fixed at 15,00 EUR. The Walloon Region allocates a subsidy of 15,00 EUR for every ordered voucher. The face value of every virtual voucher is thus 30,00 EUR.
Depending on the hourly cost of the training, the enterprise or independent entrepreneur will be reimbursed (if the hourly cost of the training with VAT is inferior to 30,00 EUR) or will have to pay the fee of training teacher (if the hourly cost of the training surpasses 30,00 EUR)

Exemple :
Basic security guard training course is 965,00 EUR for 132h hours of class.
An order of the company of 132 vouchers x 15,00 EUR = 1980,00 EUR
Real value (intervention of the Walloon Region included) is: 132 x 30 = 3960,00 EUR
You actually have 3960,00 EUR
– 965,00 EUR (the training)
– 1980,00 EUR (your initial investment)
Result = 1015,00 EUR, which you can get REIMBURSED!!

This 1015,00 EUR constitutes an incentive to employ of the Walloon Region.

Procedure:
1. You order the vouchers from Sodexho
2. The purchase of the vouchers has to be done on Sodexho’s bank account
3. You request an utilisation code on Sodexho’s secured extranet site
4. Before the training commences, you communicate to us the authorisation number and the utilisation number
5. You deposit the fee of the training course on our bank account before it commences
Remark:
the tests and the exams cannot be considered as hours of class.
A training contract binds the company with the trainee
Decree of April 10th 2003 relative to the financial incentives for training workers within the companies themselves
Warrant of the Walloon government of September 7th 2006 modifying the decree of April 10th and execution warrant of April 1st 2004

Who can apply for these training vouchers?

Can benefit of Training Vouchers are all Small and Medium sized Enterprises**, of every sector, having 1 French language principal chair of activities in the Walloon Region, operated by a natural person with or without commercial intent, a commercial or civil enterprise with commercial intent, an EURpean economic interest group or an economic interest group.
**According to the EURpean definition, a Small and Medium sized Enterprise:
- employs less than 250 workers EFT
- turnover does not exceed 40 million EURs or the total profit margin does not exceed 27 million EURs
- is not owned for more than 25% by one or several other enterprises who are not SME themselves. The worker bound through a employment contract executes his activities for an exploitation chair situated in the Walloon Region and utilising the French language;
The person affiliated to the NISSI as fully independent;
The administrator, manager, active associate and remunerated shareholder of an enterprise;
The consorts of independent entrepreneurs (affiliated to the NISSI);
Interim workers during the duration of their contract in the enterprise or the independent entrepreneur.

Remarks

No longer the obligation to be subject to VAT
No longer the obligation to have a register of commerce
No sectors of activities are excluded

Who may not apply for training vouchers?

Persons affiliated to the NISSI as partly independent
FP interns (in their Formation Period)
Students and apprentices
Non-Profit Organisations
FA (Factual Associations)

Quotas allocated based on the type of enterprise from 09/28/2006:

Type of enterprise	Training Vouchers	Language Training Vouchers
Natural person and/or person enterprise	100	25
Enterprise with 2 to 50 workers (EFT)	400	100
Enterprise with 51 to 100 workers (EFT)	600	150
Enterprise with 101 to 200 workers (EFT)	700	175
Enterprise with 201 to 250 workers (EFT)	800	200

How to order training vouchers?

Your first order of Training Vouchers is done in four steps.

1° Join (once every civil year)

If you are not yet registered or reregistered during the actual civil year, fill out the inscription form below as well as the declaration upon ones honour (obligatory).
Registration and the renewal registration allows to verify if the enterprise or the independent entrepreneur conform to the subsidising criteria of the Walloon Region. It is thus not possible to order Training-Vouchers without registering or reregistering first.

Membership form for independent entrepreneurs

Membership form for small and medium sized enterprise

Declaration upon ones honour

These documents are to be sent back to the Employment Office Counsel by fax to the number 071/20.67.62 or by post to 104 Boulevard Tirou at 6000 Charleroi.

2° Receive your authorisation number

You receive (by e-mail, fax or post) a confirmation of your registration where in are communicated your authorization number and the bank account number upon which payment must be deposited.

3° Make a deposit or a money transfer

Make a deposit on the bank account number of Sodexho with mention of your authorisation number in the coded communication. The amount to deposit must equal the number of desired vouchers, multiplied by 15,00 EUR (1 voucher for every hour of training, per person).

4° Ask an utilisation code for your virtual vouchers

Once the confirmation of your order received, you can go to the website to ask for an utilisation code for your virtual vouchers. Communicate this code and your authorisation number (by post, fax or e-mail) to the approved teacher before the start of the training (Training-Vouchers, even virtual ones, are not retroactive).

How to treat your Training Vouchers from an accounting point of view?

More information on the website of Sodexho.

The subsidies must be encoded as revenue in your accounting.
Only the enterprises or independent entrepreneurs who have a complete accounting (buy, sale, finance, divers) will be taxed (on a federal level, subsidies are considered as revenues) on the difference between amount of the certificate of the subsidy and the amount of the bill VAT included.

The correct accounting methods can be found on this website (Section "How to order / How to treat the Training-Vouchers from an accounting point of view").

Other

What to do when the training has already started and your virtual vouchers are not yet available (in other words, when Sodexho has not yet received your payment)?

You can always present yourself at the training with your proof of payment.
However, the utilisation code(s) of the virtual Training-Vouchers must be transmitted to the approved teacher on the last day of the training at the latest (Training-Vouchers, even virtual ones, are not retroactive).

Can an enterprise or an independent entrepreneur stack its orders of Training Vouchers?

Yes. If your cash flow does not allow it, it is absolutely possible to order your virtual vouchers in 2 or more instalments.
One must however pay attention to transmit the valid utilisation codes of your virtual voucher before the last day of the training. In case of a long term training, the one providing the training must, when making his intermediate bills, use the virtual vouchers with the oldest codes first.

What is the reimbursement delay after the training?

The calculation of the date of reimbursement of the unused amount (corresponding to the face value of the virtual Training-Vouchers minus the cost of VAT of the training) to the enterprise or independent entrepreneur is done starting with the date on which the provider of the training has communicated to Sodexho, through the secured extranet site, the utilisation code(s) of your virtual vouchers and the amount of its bill VAT included. This delay is 15 working days*.

*As long as this bill has not been contested by you (you have indeed 5 working days to date the encoding of the data relative to the followed training in order to contest it, in case of an error of encoding. You receive a letter "Training-Vouchers: utilisation of the vouchers" comprising the information relative to the followed training).

If, after this delay of 5 working days, no contestation has been entered, you will receive a "Notice of Reimbursement" by post. This contains the delay of the reimbursement to come, at the date initially planned.

Is it possible to ask for a reimbursement of your ordered, but unused Training Vouchers?

The still valid virtual Training-Vouchers can be subject of a reimbursement request.
These vouchers can be reimbursed, minus the administrative costs of 1,45 EUR VAT not included per voucher.
To obtain this, one must fill out the reimbursement request form for Training-Vouchers (to be obtained by calling the Training cell of Sodexho at 02/547.55.86).
The reimbursement happens within 24 hours following the reception of the reimbursement request.

What to do when the training is cancelled?

If your training has been cancelled and you do not wish to use your virtual vouchers for other training courses (or when the ordered vouchers arrive after the end of the training and cannot be another training), you can, within the validity period of your virtual vouchers, request a reimbursement from Sodexho (Tel.: 02/547.55.86) who will send you a reimbursement request form.
This form must be sent back, accompanied by an obligatory certificate of cancelation of the course (supplied, at your request, by the certified Training Centre).
Sodexho reimburses the purchase value of your vouchers (15,00 EUR) minus the administrative cost of 0,50 EUR, VAT not included, per voucher (reduced cost).

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