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A guide to freelancing

14:37 04/10/2012

Around one million people in Belgium are self-employed, and a growing number of these are non-Belgian. In Brussels, one freelance worker in three comes from abroad. Here’s how to go about setting up.

Pros and cons

Setting up shop as a travailleur indépendant/vervangende ondernemer makes a lot of sense if you are planning to work, for instance, as a language teacher, an IT consultant, a translator, a physical therapist or other professions where a freelance status opens many opportunities. Also helpful are an enterprising spirit, buckets of energy and a resistance to red tape, which can be quite daunting. Bear in mind that pension rights and sickness benefits are skimpier than for employed workers. As for paid holidays and unemployment benefits, forget about it.

The red tape

The first step, if your country of origin is outside the European Economic Area or Switzerland, is to apply for a carte professionnelle/beroepskaart from the Belgian embassy or consulate of your home country. These can also be obtained from your commune of residence once you’ve settled here. 

EEA nationals need no such card, but they must, like everyone else, register with a guichet d’entreprise/ondernemingsloket, which will issue them with a company number (there are nine across Belgium, see the website below for contact details). When that’s ticked off, you must still seek out a social security fund (also see the website) to which you will play your quarterly contributions, open a professional bank account and, in certain cases, register at your local VAT office. Congratulations: you may now officially start working!

More red tape

Freelances are legally obliged to keep detailed accounting records of their activities, such as a sales and expenses ledger. Hire an accountant if it looks like too much work for you. Most freelances have to charge their clients VAT on top of their fees. This, in most cases, amounts to 21 percent VAT, which is then paid back to the relevant authorities every month or quarter. The system also allows you to recover VAT paid on professional expenses. Some professions are VAT-exempt, such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, journalists and artists. Note that if your VAT-susceptible annual income is less than €5,580, you can file for petite entreprise/kleine onderneming status, which exempts you from charging – but also recovering – VAT. 

The cost of freedom

As a freelance, you will have to pay social contributions, which typically amount to 22 percent of your annual income (or 14.16 percent for amounts beyond €54,398.06). If you earn less than around €11,000 per year, however, your contributions will still be calculated on that threshold amount – bear this in mind if your plan is to work part-time only. One of the system’s many oddities is that social contributions are calculated on what you earned three years earlier. Your contributions for 2012, for instance, will be based on your income from 2009.

During the first three years of your freelance career, you’ll only be charged a minimum provisional amount. Three years later, that amount will be adjusted to what you actually earned, so brace yourself for a nasty surprise if your business has been flourishing. To defuse this potential time-bomb, you can anticipate how much you actually owe and make advance payments accordingly. 

On the side

People employed at least 50 percent of the time who wish to supplement their income with some freelance work can apply for the status of indépendant complémentaire/zelfstandige in bijberoep). As opposed to the main status (indépendant principal/zelfstandige in hoofdberoep), this means you only pay social contributions on what you earn – there is no minimum contribution. You’ll still be liable for income tax, though, which will be calculated by adding your freelance earnings to your salary. 

See http://business.belgium.be for useful addresses and additional information

 

Written by Marie Dumont

Comments

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Aug 26, 2019 06:43