Gross to net Belgium: how to calculate your self-employed income 

Trying to decide if you should stay an employee or become self-employed? It often comes down to how much net income you’ll have after tax. That's why it's crucial to understand how to calculate gross to net in Belgium.

As an employee, your net salary is automatically calculated by your employer and the government. When you're self-employed, you need to figure it out yourself. Fortunately, Accountable helps you with your gross to net calculations so you can make an informed choice!

Gross to net: calculating your income when you’re self-employed

As a self-employed person, your gross income consists primarily of the sales of your products and/or services. This is calculated by adding together the amounts (excluding VAT) of all your outgoing invoices. 

You then need to deduct your business expenses and social security contributions. This gives you your net taxable salary, which is the amount used to calculate the taxes you’ll have to pay.

• As a self-employed sole trader, you pay taxes of 25 to 50%.
• If you’re self-employed with a company, you pay corporate tax (25%) as well as personal income tax (between 25 and 50%) on the salary you pay yourself.

Gross net calculator Belgium

To know your net income after tax, let's take the following example.

Make your life easier and use our gross/net simulator for the self-employed.

An example of gross to net salary when self-employed

Step 1: Calculate your gross income

Ben is a graphic designer. In 2025, he invoiced his clients a total of €50,000 (excluding VAT). This represents Ben's gross income.

Step 2: Identify your deductible expenses

This year, Ben asked a marketing agency to develop a new website to boost his visibility (cost: €3,500).

He also incurred some other expenses, such as train and bus travel to visit his clients (cost: €500), office supplies (cost: €500), and licences for graphic design software (cost: €500).

In total, Ben had €5,000 of deductible expenses.

Step 3: Add up your social contributions

Ben paid €2,000* in social security contributions each quarter. With 4 quarters per year, this gives us a total of €8,000.

*This is a fictitious amount to simplify the calculation. To learn more about social security contributions for the self-employed, visit this article.

Step 4: Calculate your personal income tax using the progressive brackets 

Ben's annual net taxable income is €37,000 (gross income excluding VAT, minus professional expenses and social security contributions).

This is the amount on which his taxes will be calculated. Now that we know Ben's annual net taxable income, we can calculate his taxes.

Progressive tax brackets Belgium

As a self-employed sole trader working in Belgium, you are subject to tax at progressive rates. In other words, the more you earn, the more you’re taxed. Here are the tax brackets for the 2025 financial year (2024 income):

💡 Click here to learn more about progressive tax brackets.

• The first bracket, from €0.01 to €15,820, is taxed at 25%.
  €15,820 x 25% = €3,955
  

• The second bracket, from €15,820 to €27,920, is taxed at 40%.
  €12,100 (€27,920 - €15,820) x 40% = €4,840
  
• The third bracket, from €27,920 to €48,320, is taxed at 45%.
  €9,080 (€37,000 - €27,920) x 45% = €4,086
  

• Net taxable income above €48,320 falls into the 50% tax bracket.
  
• Adding the three amounts together gives a total personal income tax of €12,881.

The tax-exempt portion

Everyone is entitled to a tax-free amount. In the 2025 financial year (2024 income), this amount was €10,570. But that doesn't mean you won't pay tax on your first €10,570. The term "tax-free portion" can be misleading, as it's actually a reduction in your total tax.

In this example, the tax-free portion is calculated as follows: 

€10,570 x 25% = €2,642.50 

So how much will Ben pay in tax? €12,881 (personal income tax) - €2,642.50 (tax-free portion) = €10,238.50

Net income of a self-employed person in Belgium

From gross earnings of €50,000, Ben gets to keep €26,761.50.
He can therefore give himself a maximum monthly salary* of €2,230.

*In reality, self-employed sole traders don’t pay themselves a “salary”, unlike those with a company.

The calculation may vary depending on your personal situation, the tax-exempt amount and municipal tax.

In our example, Ben pays a lot in tax. By deducting business expenses intelligently, you can optimise your tax burden and your net income. Our tax coaches and database of business expenses are here to help.

Gross/net calculation for a secondary, self-employed activity

Many people start out with a side business before becoming self-employed as their main occupation.

In this case, you also need to take your income as an employee into account when calculating your personal income tax.

This handy tool converts gross income to net income for those self-employed in a secondary occupation.

Calculate your gross to net with Accountable

As a freelancer or self-employed person, it's not always easy to know how much you’re earning net. Many factors, such as unexpected business expenses or VAT you’re expecting to get back from the state, impact the final amount. It's usually only at the end of the year that you find out your actual net income. That’s not very practical, because you want to know how much you can spend every month... which is perfectly normal!

The tips and calculations above should give you a better idea of how to figure out your net income as a freelancer.

With Accountable, you always know how much net income is yours to keep. Say goodbye to complicated calculations and hello to peace of mind.

Try Accountable for free.

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 ?