How can I pay myself a salary as a freelancer (Natural person Self Employed)?

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The "salary" principle for freelancers

In Belgium, you can either be :

• An employee: in this case, you receive a salary from your employer.

• As a one-person company (S.P.R.L., S.A., etc.): in this case, you must go through a social secretariat for your payslips, and then your company pays you a salary as company director.

• A freelancer (natural person self-employed): in this case, you don't receive a salary as such, and you can't pay yourself a salary as a company director. The amount remaining in your bank account once your suppliers and taxes have been paid is the amount available "in your pocket".

As a self-employed individual, it's crucial to anticipate how much you'll need to set aside to pay all your taxes, so that you know at all times how much is available to you privately.

Here's our advice on how to do it right:

1/ Points to consider

• It's essential to be cautious and not overdo it on personal expenses, as your gross income must cover your professional costs, such as insurance, office, materials and subscriptions.

• As a self-employed person, you are also required to pay social security contributions equivalent to 20.5% of your income, in addition to taxes.

• If you are subject to VAT, remember that you must pay this tax to SPF Finance and cannot keep it.

2/ Flexibility in salary choice

Unlike employees, self-employed don't have a fixed salary, and have the flexibility to decide how their earnings are allocated, whether annually, monthly, weekly or even on a daily basis.

3/ Recommended financial management

It's recommended to open a business account separate from your private account, so you have a clear overview of your finances.

You can transfer a certain amount to your private bank account on a monthly basis, considered as your independent salary, to cover your personal expenses.

In the banking section of the app, simply classify your salary transaction as "A personal payment".

4/ Accountable gives you access to your available cash at all times 🚀🚀🚀

• Once your bank account is connected to Accountable, you can access your 'Cash available':

• In the 'Total balance' section, if you uncheck your bank account connected to the app, your balance will be €0:

• Future revenues: you can choose to include your future income* or exclude it (by checking/unchecking):

*Here the amount is negative, because this is a demo / test account and because there have been many credit notes on sales.

• Future taxes: this is the most important part of 'Available Cash' because it takes into account your future taxes:

  → Everything you need to set aside for social security contributions, VAT for the current quarter (if you're subject to VAT), provision for income tax, etc.

• You could also have VAT to recover or a tax refund, and this will be taken into account. It's up to you to check or uncheck the lines you wish to take into account:

• Balance "left after taxes":

🚨 For your information: The left after-tax balance depends on how you estimate your profit:

Author - Valesca Wilms

As content marketing lead at Accountable Belgium, Valesca writes about freelancing, self-employment, and taxes based on her own experience as a freelancer.

Who is Valesca ?