Becoming independent in January: our 5 tips

If you are unemployed and want to take advantage of the independent springboard

You can start as a self-employed person as a secondary activity while continuing to receive unemployment benefits for a period of up to 12 months. These 12 months are a laboratory, which allows you to test your project. At the end of these twelve months, you choose to start as a self-employed person as your main activity or to resume your job search, with an allowance. You can find all the details here.

The starter reduction for your social security contributions, to take or to leave?

As a self-employed person, you pay a proportion of your income (generally 20.5% of it) at the end of each quarter to ensure your social security coverage. Your social security fund will send you a letter estimating what you have to pay.

When you start out, no one knows your income: the social security fund therefore calculates your social security contributions on an income estimated at 14,658.44 euros (main self-employed) or 1,621.72 euros (additional activity). As a main self-employed person, you pay around 774 euros per quarter, as a supplementary self-employed person around 85 euros per quarter.

➡️  If you earn more than these estimated amounts, ask your social security fund to be able to pay social security contributions corresponding to 20.5% of your actual income from the start. Otherwise, when the tax authorities communicate your exact income, two to three years later, you will have to repay the difference in one go... To avoid this unpleasant surprise, Accountable calculates in real time what you have to pay in social security contributions.

➡️  If you earn less than these estimated amounts , think about the reduced minimum contributions for starters: you can ask to pay 403.27 euros each quarter for the first four quarters. To do this, you must submit a request to your social security fund and prove that your income is actually that low. You can only benefit from this if you have just taken the status of self-employed as your main activity.

Our advice? Ask to pay these reduced contributions only if you are sure not to exceed this income in your first year. Otherwise, again, you would have to repay the difference later!

Deductible expenses start… today!

You want to start equipping yourself little by little: you have the opportunity, for example, to buy a computer that you will use exclusively for professional purposes. The administration tolerates that we deduct these costs directly related to your activity that you do up to three months before the start.

Wondering what counts as a deductible expense? Our Google of business expenses is here to answer you!

❓ “Can I recover the VAT for this professional expense incurred before having my VAT number?”

This is the legitimate question that many of you are asking. You only recover the VAT if you have a proper invoice, with your VAT number.

It is therefore difficult, if not impossible, to recover the VAT on these professional expenses incurred before the start-up, unless your supplier gives you a duplicate of the invoice.

VAT exemption, such a good idea?

VAT is a tax that you collect from your customers to pay to the State at the end of the quarter. As a self-employed person, you can also recover it, in whole or in part, on your professional purchases. Our application automatically generates the declaration that you must submit at the end of the quarter. It also calculates in real time your VAT balance, the difference between the VAT that you reimburse and that which you recover.

If your annual turnover remains below 25,000 euros, you can apply to be a franchisee. In this case, no VAT to pay or recover, no declaration to submit at the end of the quarter. You are also more affordable for private customers who do not recover VAT. However, you do not recover VAT on your professional purchases: our chartered accountant partner would therefore advise you to aim for VAT liability.

Advance tax payments: yes, but not right away!

Self-employed people pay tax themselves on the gross income that they invoice to their client. For several years now, Belgian self-employed people have been making advance tax payments. You pay your taxes on your taxable income for the current year in four instalments, instead of waiting until the following year and your tax return.

Hassan Ayed, our chartered accountant partner, has done the math for you: “It is in your best interest to pay 75% of the total amount due in the first payment.” However, in the first year, it is very difficult to estimate what your figures will be in the months to come.

Hassan Ayed therefore advises self-employed individuals not to make these payments in the first year, but to make them in the following two years: you will then receive a bonus. Note that after the first three years, these payments are mandatory under penalty of penalty!

A tip 🎁 for the road: why start at the beginning of a quarter? Because you pay social security contributions for an entire quarter, regardless of when in the quarter you start. So it's in your best interest to start at the beginning of a quarter, invoice for that entire quarter, and face your first social security contributions once you have some money in your business account!

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