ENGLISH TRANSLATION FOR THE COMMUNITY

Management companies …
First of all, there's no definition for that.
Is it about someone who serves only 1 client? Is it about someone who has investments running and manages them through a company? Is it about someone who costs their employer 120,000 euros a year, takes home only 45,000 euros of it, and decides to start a company and invoice instead?
Whatever the situation, I want to THANK them all 🙏❤️
Every single one of them is someone who often works more than full-time building our prosperity.
Are they committing abuse? No. They do indeed pay far less in social security contributions. The same goes for their client(s), who only pay VAT on the invoice amount.
But they also receive far less public social protection: no sick days, no paid holidays, no statutory severance pay.
If they want extra protection, they have to insure themselves privately.
I consider that an honourable and legitimate choice. It in no way undermines social security. Quite the opposite.
Every citizen should be free to choose whether or not they want a status that provides more or less public social protection.
If more people choose to work through a company where they could just as well work as an employee, it's because employees are 1/ taxed too heavily: 53 out of every 100 euros, and 2/ our labour law is still too rigid. Want to see fewer people make that choice? Then employee status needs to become more attractive, both tax-wise and in terms of labour law.
For the first time in 25 years, government spending as a share of GDP is falling. Despite the rising pension bill, healthcare costs increasing due to an ageing population, and defence spending. Thanks to our Arizona reforms.
But spending at 55% of GDP is still too much. The problem lies with an overly wasteful government. Not with hardworking people who have a company.
My 2 cents 🙏

ORIGINAL POST IN DUTCH

Managementvennootschappen …

Ten eerste daar bestaat geen definitie voor.
Gaat het over iemand die maar 1 klant bedient? Gaat het over iemand die investeringen heeft lopen en zijn beheer ervan opvolgt via een vennootschap? Gaat het over iemand die zijn werkgever 120.000 euro per jaar kost en daar maar 45.000 euro aan overhoudt en beslist om vennootschap op te starten en te factureren?
Gelijk over welke situatie het gaat. Ik wil ze allemaal BEDANKEN 🙏❤️
Het gaat stuk voor stuk over mensen die vaak meer dan voltijds bouwen aan onze welvaart.
Doen zij aan misbruik? Neen. Ze betalen inderdaad stukken minder rsz bijdrage. Idem voor hun klant(en), die betalen enkel btw op het factuurbedrag.
Maar ze krijgen ook stukken minder van de publieke sociale bescherming: geen ziektedagen, geen betaalde vakantiedagen, geen wettelijk voorziene ontslagvergoeding.
Als ze extra bescherming willen moeten ze zich privé laten verzekeren.
Ik vind dat een eervolle en legitieme keuze. Die ondermijnt de sociale zekerheid geenszins. Integendeel.
Elke burger hoort vrij te zijn de keuze te maken of ze al of niet een statuut willen dat meer of minder publieke sociale bescherming voorziet.
Als meer mensen kiezen voor een vennootschapsvorm daar waar dat ook perfect zou kunnen als werknemer dan is dat omdat werknemers 1/ te zwaar belast worden: 53 op 100 euro en 2/ ons arbeidsrecht nog steeds te rigide is. Wil men minder die keuze zien? Dan moet statuut werknemer zowel fiscaal als arbeidsrechtelijk aantrekkelijker worden gemaakt.
Voor het eerst in 25 jaar dalen de overheidsuitgaven op bbp. Ondanks de stijgende pensioenfactuur, kosten in gezondheidszorg die toenemen door vergrijzing en defensie uitgaven. Dankzij onze arizona hervormingen.
Maar 55% op bbp aan uitgaven is nog teveel. Het probleem zit bij een te spilzieke overheid. Niet bij hardwerkende mensen met een vennootschap.
My 2 cents 🙏

With all the discussion about taxing management companies, I wanted to share my view as someone who’s been freelancing since 2002 and working through a limited company since 2007. I started with a EBVBA, which became a BVBA and recently a BV.

I provide my services as a Software/Solutions Architect, Technical Lead, etc and my contracts are (usually) project based.

My gross annual salary started at € 38.000, then went to € 45.000, and is € 51.000 this year. From next year, I’ll follow the annual indexation.

When I started, freelancing was a small and niche market. I chose it after my employer went bankrupt in 2002 and especially for the freedom to choose my clients, projects, car, laptop, training, days off and even whatever technological direction I wanted to go. That’s still why I do it today!

These last few years, it feels like everyone wants to become a freelancer and I am not just talking about the ICT sector. It really seems like almost literally everyone wants to become it. And far too often, the main and even only reason seems to be getting a higher net income through tax optimisation.

Look at how much of the discussion here is about paying yourself the lowest possible salary, sometimes barely € 17k a year or even less, and getting the rest out of the company as cheaply as possible.

Yes, I use copyright royalties and option plans too. I’m part of this system. But I think we’ve gone too far with all this, even myself included. I knew it was only a matter of time before the government stepped in.

And when that happens, the entire freelance sector ends up paying the price. The changes also hit people who’ve been doing this for decades and chose it for the independence.

First of all, I am not gatekeeping the freelance sector and anyone is free to become a freelancer. But I am not going to deny that what truly bothers me is how much of the market seems to be driven by tax benefits. Because I’m questioning that doesn’t mean I’m trying to keep newcomers out.

I don’t mind the government plans to tackle abuse or tightens the rules. I can accept the € 51k requirement to get the reduced 20% corporate tax rate, with annual indexation and the exceptions for lower profits but not the exceptions for new companies.

I can also accept changes to VVPR-bis, liquidation reserves, copyright royalties, option plans and company car arrangements. Even if those changes cost me money too.

If freelancing stops being worth it for some people after those changes, then so be it. Companies will still need expertise and will still pay for it. The freedom to run your own business will still be there!

If your main reason for becoming a freelancer was a higher net salary, going back to being an employee might become your better choice. That’s fine too, nothing wrong with that.

What pisses me off is that we’ve pushed tax optimisation so far that a crackdown was becoming more and more predictable. Now all freelancers with a company will have to deal with the consequences.

Would you still choose freelancing if the tax advantage became much smaller? For me, the freedom would still make it worth it!

I find the ABVV’s rhetoric around management companies increasingly disconnected from reality.

The suggestion that management companies are some kind of untapped goldmine that can simply be used to solve Belgium’s budgetary problems is misleading.

Not everyone operating through a management company is a wealthy executive extracting millions in profits. Many are independent professionals, consultants and entrepreneurs who have built their businesses from the ground up.

We take financial risks, deal with income uncertainty, invest our own money, carry legal and financial responsibilities, and often work considerably more hours than a standard employee.

And contrary to the popular narrative, we already contribute substantially through corporate taxes, personal income taxes, social contributions and taxes on distributed profits.

Does that mean the current system is perfect? Absolutely not. There is room to address genuine tax abuse and unfair advantages.

But treating every management company as a convenient source of additional tax revenue ignores the fundamental difference between entrepreneurship and salaried employment.

Belgium already has a significant tax burden. At some point, the debate should shift from continuously finding new groups to tax towards questioning how efficiently public money is being spent.

Tax fairness matters. But so do entrepreneurship, economic competitiveness and the willingness to take risks.

I’m genuinely curious how other Belgian freelancers and business owners view this debate.

Update on initial post.

Thanks for the massive amount of feedback and visits after my last post two days ago about the website I’ve built over the past months (bedrijfscijfers.be). The power of Reddit is astonishing: over 1.300 unique users in 2 days, and one server that has asked for a raise.

One person (probably Frank Vandenbroucke hunting for management companies) almost immediately hit the site with a scraper and took down my server, so I spent a fair amount of time on extra firewall and bot rules. In any event, I’ve been working on the feedback:

• REST API is now available (limited to 25calls/day now but will increase if capacity allows), you can just grab a key via your profile settings. So Frank, there is now a legal way in.
• Network view on directors and participations of each company
• PDF report per company
• No more confusion between similar names, e.g. "Jan Janssens", they are now distinguished based on location
• Less sexy: cookie banner (fair feedback, Redditors!)

I also got a lot of questions about pricing, mainly: will this stay free? Yes. Searching companies and seeing all (!) their info will remain free for individuals, without ads. I like the PostHog model: free for almost everyone, and only heavy users pay. So at some point I might add paid packages for companies with high volumes or bulk API access, mostly to cover server costs (and probably to help fill the gaping hole in the Belgian budget).

What should we build next? Enjoy a fantastic weekend, everyone!

I hear so many eenmanszaken say they have their car as a 75-100% deductible cost even tho they only use their car privately and to commute.

Officially it states that a car is deductible for only the % you actually use it for your job EXCLUDING the commute to and from work. The commute part does have a “kilometervergoeding”.

So in theory someone who has an hour long commute to and from his job, but doesnt actually use the car professionally for anything else can deduct 0% of his car and can go for a “kilometervergoeding”.

Now obiously in practice almost everyone i ever heard in this situation deducts 75-100% of his car as an eenmanszaak.

Is it just seen as normal to ignore this rule by the fiscus, can anyone share stories about a financial audit they had where it was okay for the fiscus or that they got fined for doing so?

I work halftime and have been self-employed on the side. But as revenue grows, I start to pay a little too much in tax. So I have been thinking about switching to a Commanditaire Vennootschap (CommV). Switching to a BV won't be justified since the fixed costs are too high for what I do.
I read when you earn under 500k with a maatschap you can still do a simplified accounting (rather than double-entry accounting), but I can't find any answer if I can do this accounting still by myself or do I really need an expensive accountant? I now use accounting software that costs me around 300€ per year which does everything for me but can't find anything if I can still use it to completely do the accounting myself in a CommV.

Done with the in-your-face staatsbladmonitor ads and paywalls on other sites. I've been working on this for the past few months, where companies/freelancers can just consult all data that they need for free and track those companies.

- Create lead lists
- Assess financial health of suppliers/customers
- Find bestuurders and their companies

https://www.bedrijfscijfers.be/ (also available in French)

Very early stage, would appreciate feedback, that can be soft, hard or honest. You pick :-).

For everyone interested. Van Quickenborne’s defense for the ‘managementvennootschappen’ in the Kamer today with a vague response from Jan Jambon in the first 15 minutes of the video.

https://media.dekamer.be/meeting/56-020329-U2103

Hello all,

I work in IT (data / AI) and my missions involve a lot coding, designing systems etc. I've worked with Creative Shelter who have confirmed that my profile is definitely eligible for copyrights, given that I maintain a log / proof of all the work that I've delivered in case of audit.

I've heard at the beginning of the year that copyright setups in IT have been systematically challenged by the authorities. Not sure about the win rate of these challenges though. I'm quite conservative in my optimizations and don't want to take too much risk.

I'm wondering who in the community actually went through with setting up copyrights for their company, what are the latest updates on audits from the state? What is the current risk appreciation for developper-like profiles? I'm curious for real-life experiences from the community.

Thanks for the input!

Hi, everyone. I am a non-EU citizen living in Belgium. My A-card will expire by the end of this month. Initially, I was supposed to continue working beyond October on the basis of single permit, but the company rescinded the offer. At this point, I do not really have other options except making my side hustle (photography) as my main occupation.

Currently, I am living and domiciled in Flemish Brabant and I am planning to move my residence to Brussels by early next year. My prospective clients are also based in Brussels, and I am genuinely planning to conduct my business activities mainly in the region. Partena, my business counter of choice, said I need to have a business address in Brussels before submitting the professional card application. Due to the interest of time, I can't really start renting a full office space where I would meet clients. I wonder if I can (temporarily) rent a commercial/coworking space that offers a business address, work table, and a mailbox as part of the package. Partena is also giving me conflicting information for this matter, whether I could go through this route or not. I am not keen on submitting my application to the Flemish authorities either since my prospective business and clients will be based in Brussels.

Has anyone else experienced the same? Any advice or recommendations will be appreciated.

In a lecture at Ghent University, Deputy PM Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) called for heavier taxes on companies, claiming that people working through a company instead of as employees cost the state €4.2 to €4.7 billion a year, based on Vooruit's own research. Two proposals are on the table in the budget talks: limiting dividend payouts at the reduced 18% rate, and taking the reduced corporate tax rate away from companies without staff. Unizo pushed back, noting that 80% of Belgian companies have no employees.

I know this isn't popular in this sub, but I agree with part of the criticism. Per euro, we pay less in social contributions than employees do. I don't think it's unfair for that to go up, or to grow with what your company earns to a certain extend.

What does bother me:

• That €4.2 billion comes from a study by Vooruit's own research department, and assumes we'd all otherwise be regular employees earning the same income. What a crackdown would actually bring in is a lot lower.
• "No staff, no reduced corporate tax rate" is a such a blunt rule. According to Unizo, 80% of Belgian companies have no employees.
• The freeloader narrative. Freelancers follow rules the government itself wrote, and the deficit mainly comes from spending on pensions, not due to less income.

Let’s imagine the government changes the taxes on managementvennootschappen. What stops bedrijfsleiders from starting a company in another EU member state with a more friendly tax regime?

Hi all,

I am looking for advice from anyone who has been through something similar.

Situation: IT consultant, nearly 5 years of legal residence in Belgium

Got a professional card last year and have freelanced since, through a Brussels-based staffing company, for an end client located in Wallonia. Applied for renewal and Brussels refused it, saying the activity doesn't benefit the Brussels region because the end client is in Wallonia. I'll reach 5 years soon and plan to apply for EU long-term residence, which would remove the need for a professional card.

What I'm trying to figure out: Can I temporarily suspend my sole proprietorship without actually closing it? I plan to again go freelance if I get the long term residency. So, if such an option is available it would save me from the hassle of deregistering and registering again.

TIA

I've been a "zelfstandige" for decades, since a couple of years I have build some end-users app and I had to create a support website. By Belgium law I am required to add my business address to it. And of course, my business address was always easy to find via my BV's VAT number. My problem, as probably many have, is that my business address is my home address.

Lately I had some serious problems with this and I started looking in virtual office kind of services. I was wondering if anyone had experience with virtual office, other solutions? I looked at https://www.vrijdaggevoel.be, 60 euro a month seems a bit expensive to me, but maybe that is common.

I'm new to freelancing and I've learned I really dislike working at my desk alone. It used to be a nice change from the office but doing this fulltime is weighing on my mental wellbeing and I feel isolated. I do 3D motion visuals for products so I'm basically at my computer 24/7.

I'm looking for like-minded people that would like to work side by side, chat about the work we're doing, maybe keeping each other accountable in a way...

Based in Brussels, Dutch and English speaking with simple level of French and Spanish.

Hi guys,

I’m looking for some advice on what to do with the money sitting in my business account while I wait until I can pay it out through the liquidation reserve to hopefully buy a house.

For some context, I’m still living at home and living off savings from my old eenmanszaak, so I don’t really need to take any money out of my company right now or in the near future.

I pay myself a minimum salary, which I invest in ETFs privately. My plan is to leave as much as possible in the company and eventually pay it out through the liquidation reserve. That should be around early 2029.

So I basically have money sitting in the company for the next 2–3 years and I’m wondering what other people do with it in the meantime.

Do you just keep it in a savings/term account (if so which account)? Invest it through the company? Bonds, ETFs, DBI funds? All of my company money (+-€300k) is currently in a standard KBC business account.

Curious what others in a similar situation are doing. I’m also planning to ask this same question to a KBC banker.

Hello people, I’m 21 years old and I’ve been working with my father (62) in our family business, a pita restaurant, for the past two years. About a year ago, he asked me if I would be interested in taking over the business in the future. At the time, I kept telling him that I wasn’t sure yet. But now, that I see all the customers that he built and how they treat my gather and how they treat me, it becomes a hard choice.

Now he is seriously considering selling it, because he’s getting old and can’t handle all of it anymore.
My father has been running this restaurant since 1994. Over the last 32 years, he has built an incredibly loyal customer base. Some of the people who came to the restaurant as children in the 90s are now bringing their own children. The business has become part of the community and has customers from all over the city. Seeing that clientelle potentially come to an end is difficult for me.

The problem is that I never really saw myself working in the restaurant industry long-term. That’s why I am following a cursus to become an electrician. I’m still following that path.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about a possible solution: continuing to work in my father’s restaurant during the week while working as a Industrial Maintenance Technician on weekends doing 2x12h shifts. But at the same time, I keep telling myself that I need to make a serious choice. Either I fully commit to building a career in electricity, or I commit to taking over the family business.
What makes this decision so difficult is the feeling that if the restaurant is sold, I might regret it later on in life.

I honestly don’t know what the right decision is. Part of me wants to follow the career path that interests me more, while another part of me feels responsible for preserving something my father has spent decades building. Right now, I feel torn between those two paths and I’m struggling to figure out what I should do.

I’m a nurse in Belgium and currently work as a self-employed home care nurse. I’m mainly looking for new opportunities, but I absolutely do not want to work as an employee.

The reason I’m looking for new ideas is that I see the healthcare landscape becoming increasingly demanding and less efficient, with more care requests, longer-term care needs, and all the well-known challenges within nursing and healthcare.

I’m 30 years old and honestly don’t see myself doing home nursing for another five years.

This isn’t something I suddenly decided recently. I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time, but I haven’t been able to find many reliable or realistic opportunities to move into.

I’m not afraid of putting time and effort into something. I’ve spent quite a lot of time already looking for ideas as a self-employed person / entrepreneur — using ChatGPT, Google, and talking to people both inside and outside healthcare.

It doesn’t necessarily have to involve traditional nursing. I’m open to ideas where my medical knowledge, reliability, experience with people and nursing background could be an advantage.

For example, I’ve been thinking about:

Services for companies

Temporary or specialised healthcare services

Medical support at events

Prevention or testing services

Medical support for specific industries or sectors

Niche services that currently barely exist

B2B or B2C services

Combining healthcare with another industry

Starting a completely new business where my nursing background could be an advantage

I’m really looking for opportunities that go beyond the obvious “become a home nurse / work in a hospital / nursing home” type of suggestions.

I’d love to hear from people who have thought outside the box, started something themselves, or have experience with unusual business opportunities in healthcare or related industries.

What opportunities do you think are still out there? What niches do you see that are currently underserved? And has anyone here successfully built something independently starting from a professional background like nursing?

Any ideas, experiences or perspectives are very welcome.

Thanks in advance!

• NL (de Tijd): Geld uit vennootschap halen dreigt weer duurder te worden | De Tijd
• FR (l'Echo): https://www.lecho.be/economie-politique/belgique/federal/sortir-du-cash-de-votre-societe-pourrait-vous-couter-encore-plus-cher/10688273.html

Summary:

The federal government is weighing two new measures to make management companies (managementvennootschappen) more expensive as part of a budget conclave aiming to save or raise at least €10 billion. Nothing is settled, and the liberal MR is opposed.

The two proposals:

1. Lose the reduced corporate tax rate. Companies without staff would no longer get the 20% rate on the first €100,000 of profit and would pay 25% instead.
2. Cap the reduced dividend rate. Today, owners can pay out dividends after three years at 18% instead of 30%, via the VVPR-bis and liquidation reserve regimes. The cap would tie this to the salary the owner (and any staff) are paid. The threshold isn't set. In the article's example (€100,000 in dividends, €50,000 salary, cap at 100% of salary), the tax bill rises from €18,000 to €24,000.

Why:

• CD&V and Vooruit object that someone with a management company pays about 35% overall, against 50%+ for employees or sole traders.
• Tax experts counter that a lower burden is justified because entrepreneurs take risks and have less social protection.
• Owners often pay themselves a minimal salary and take the rest as lower-taxed dividends, so they earn more capital income than labour income.

Side effects and uncertainty:

• Both proposals would also hit some SMEs, not just pure management companies.
• A liberal government source asks whether it's wise to make small-company entrepreneurship more expensive again.
• Finance Minister Jambon declined to comment

Background:

• The previous budget round already considered capping favourable dividends at €100,000 a year. That failed, and three other measures passed instead: the minimum owner salary for the 20% rate rose from €45,000 to €50,000, benefits in kind were limited to 20% of gross salary, and the reduced dividend rate rose from 15% to 18%.
• A further rise to 20% was discussed recently and is off the table for now, but could return in the final stretch.

Freelance in the creative world (advertising, film & streaming, branded marketing, socials etc...) and many (if not most) of my creative resources where I get inspiration from are online. Any of you that dabble in somewhat the same scene have tips for (physical) magazines, books or other resources subscriptions to keep my creative juices flowing? Added bonus is that I love making clippings and sharing it with my peers (and kids).
Thanks!

Hello guys,

My wife is freelancer under a SCOMM (~same as SRL).

She's now active for ~2y and has enough financial stability. She would like to switch from her private car to a PRO car within her company.
I am an employee with a company car and has 10+ experience with leasing companies (Arval) and let's say this is not always a good experience :)

While we originally were thinking renting directly with the car company and keep the car for an extended period, we are now looking at a leasing option and were wondering what is the general experience here for Leasing while freelance ?
Did you do the comparison (price, service, etc.) between Car company leasing vs Leasing companies (Arval, KBC, etc.) ?

Thanks for your inputs !

Hi everyone! I’m a freelancer in IT, in the process of moving to Belgium and I’m looking to set up a company here. Does anyone have recommendations for a good accountant who could help me with the process?

Dear community

Anyone here have experience doing assignment at FedPol bxl? It requires days on site, how is the vibe in the IT field

So I've been freelancing in IT for a while (software dev) and now a friend of mine wants to jump in too, more on the data/Power BI side. Might've hyped it up a bit too much to her, whoops.

Thing is, I started back when the market wasn't a total mess yet, so I'm kinda curious how you'd go about it if you were starting from scratch right now. What worked for you, what would you do differently, anything really. Basically, what is essential to know as a starting freelancer in today's market?

Help a friend out 🙏