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As a self-employed individual, it ’s essential to understand your rights and obligations to operate legally in Belgium. Unlike employees, you have a distinct legal status that entails certain responsibilities—but it also grants you access to tailored social protections. These obligations, including the payment of social contributions, are crucial to securing the social rights guaranteed under Belgium’s self-employment legislation.
Discover everything you need to know about your rights and obligations as a self-employed professional, including administrative formalities and the social benefits available to you.
If you’re self-employed, your social status differs from that of employees. Under this status, you have four key obligations:
You pay your social security contributions directly to your social insurance fund, which then forwards them to the National Institute for the Social Security of the Self-employed (NISSE).
The NISSE uses these contributions from self-employed individuals to finance benefits under the general system. This includes reimbursements for:
In exchange for paying your social security contributions quarterly, you will receive certain rights. These rights provide basic social protection for you and your family.
At the end of your career, you will receive a pension. Most likely, this pension will not be very high. That's why you are recommended to also build up a supplementary pension so that you can maintain your standard of living in retirement.
Are you a self-employed new mum? Then you will be paid a maternity allowance during your maternity leave. You are also entitled to 105 free service vouchers after the birth of your child. Fathers and co-parents get paternity and birth benefits respectively after the birth of the child.
A bridging allowance helps you to retain certain social security rights and receive temporary compensation for up to 12 months if you have to interrupt or stop your self-employment activity due to economic difficulties.
This insurance guarantees, under certain conditions, a replacement income if you have to stop working (temporarily) due to illness or an accident.
Thanks to your social status, you can count on financial support from your health insurance fund if you need healthcare.
You can interrupt all or part (at least 50%) of your self-employed activity to care for a child who has a severe disability, a relative who is seriously ill, or a relative who is dying.
You can temporarily interrupt your self-employed activity in the event of a family member's death.
You receive monthly child benefits for all your children. The amount of child benefits is the same for all social statuses entitled to it (self-employed people, employees, civil servants).
Being self-employed means following certain rules, but it also grants you access to valuable social protections. Paying social contributions is essential for securing these benefits, such as pensions, maternity leave, incapacity benefits, or bereavement allowances. It’s crucial to fully understand your obligations and register for these social rights to take full advantage of the protections available to self-employed individuals.
If you plan to become self-employed as your main occupation, there are several administrative steps you must take to comply with Belgian legislation:
Register your company with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE). You will then be assigned a company number. This unique number identifies your company to all official governing bodies.
Register your company number as a VAT number with the FPS Finance. We’re also happy to help you with this, of course!
You will need one or more licences or permits for some activities, and you will need to apply for these yourself. Examples include Unisono, FASFC, …
Affiliate to a social insurance fund for administering your social security contributions. These contributions ensure your social security, such as pension and health insurance.
Entrepreneurship is about taking risks. So it’s recommended to protect yourself by taking out the right insurance policies.
No worries: we've put together an overview of all your rights as a self-employed person, including information on the entities you can turn to for more information.