NSSO - Target Group Reduction 1st recruitments 12 months ≠ 4 quarters

Employers may, under certain conditions, be entitled to a reduction of employers' social security contributions for the recruitment of their first 6 employees. It regards the target group reduction '1st recruitments. Specific conditions must be observed if the employer forms one technical business unit (TBU) with other employers. The NSSO has made a minor change to one of these conditions.

If several employers form the same TBU, then the newly recruited employee cannot replace an employee who was employed within the same TBU in the course of the 12 months (to the day) prior to the recruitment.

Up to now, the NSSO applied a period of 4 quarters prior to the recruitment to assess whether a replacement took place within one and the same TBU. In the administrative guidelines for employers (www.socialsecurity.be) of the 4th quarter 2017, the period of 4 quarters has been replaced by the period of 12 months (to the day) prior to recruitment.

Remark: to determine whether a replacement took place within the same TBU, one must proceed as follows:

• Determine the total number of employees employed at the same time within the TBU in the course of the 12 months (to the day) (and no longer 4 quarters) prior to the recruitment (= A);
• Then take the total number of employees recruited by the new employer on the 1st day, increased by the number of employees who are possibly still employed by other employers within the same TBU (= B).

If B is higher than A and the difference is at least one unit, this may give rise to the entitlement to the reduction.

Example:

Employer X recruits his 1st employee on 16 January 2018.

Previously, the period which had to be taken into consideration was 4 quarters prior to the recruitment, i.e. from 1 January to 31 December 2017.

Now, this is the period from 16 January 2017 to 15 January 2018.

Source: Administrative guidelines for employers Q4/2017 www.socialsecurity.be

Author: Anne Ghysels

19/01/2018