Social security refunds: how to declare them in your tax return

When you’re self-employed in Belgium, you pay social security contributions every quarter. But what happens if you pay too much and then get a refund of the extra contributions you paid?

That’s good news for your bank account, but how do you correctly report this refund of (part of) your social security contributions and pay the right taxes on it? Find out in this article.

Need a refresher on how social security contributions are calculated and why you need to pay them? Read everything you need to know about social security contributions for the self-employed in 2025 here.

What happens when you get a refund of social security contributions?

As a self-employed person, you pay provisional social security contributions every quarter. After around two years, FPS Finance communicates your actual income to your social security fund. If the estimated income used to calculate your provisional contributions was higher than your actual income, you’ll get back the extra amount you paid.

Your social security fund notifies you and automatically transfers the money to your account, unless you still have an outstanding debt. In this case, the money is used to settle the debt. Note that this only applies to late payments. You still need to pay your contribution for the current quarter.

Your actual income never exactly matches the estimated income on which your social security contributions are calculated, and that’s normal. This is why, after 2 or 3 years, you’re always in one of two situations: either you get some money back, or you have to pay extra. It’s roughly the same principle as when you file your tax return.

An example

You paid provisional contributions in 2023. In the end, your actual income for that year turned out to be lower. Your social security contributions are recalculated, and you’ll get €960.64 back from your social security fund in 2025.

Not bad, right? But how do you reflect these refunded social security contributions in your accounting?

Refunded social security contributions: how to declare them in your tax return

Now for the less good news: you have to pay taxes on any social security contributions that are refunded.

Why? Well, social security contributions are 100% deductible. They reduce your profits and, consequently, the income tax you have to pay. The overpaid contributions were therefore wrongly recorded as business expenses.

That’s why you need to add any reimbursement of social security contributions to your income. This is done in section XIX of your tax return. Declare the reimbursement under code 1206/2206 (code 50), "Remboursement de cotisations sociales” / “Teruggave van sociale bijdragen” (i.e. reimbursement of social security contributions). This amount will be added to your taxable income.

Indicate the refunded social security contributions in Accountable

• Step 1: Add a new expense, just as you would when entering your normal quarterly contributions as a business expense, but this time choose “credit note” (i.e. a negative expense).
  
• Step 2: Indicate the amount you will be reimbursed.
  
• Step 3: The date of the expense needs to correspond to the date of the regularisation received from your social security fund (in this example, 2025), and not to the year the refund relates to (in this example, 2023). For the VAT category, you also need to select the quarter in which the regularisation was received.
  
• Step 4: And that's it! The refund has been entered correctly, and Accountable will automatically include it in your tax return.

In which year’s accounting should the refund be recorded?

Let's say you get a refund in 2025 for social security contributions you overpaid in 2023. This refund needs to be included in your tax return for 2025 income (tax year 2026), even though the original payment was made in an earlier year (2023).

This is one of the rare cases where an accounting operation is carried out in one year and then corrected for tax purposes in a different year.

Handling social security refunds in your accounting

Are you getting a refund of the extra social security contributions you paid? Great! But don't forget to record them correctly, both from an accounting and tax perspective. In your accounting, treat the refund as a negative cost. In your tax return, enter the refunded amount under code 1206/2206 (50).

This way, everything is transparent and you'll avoid any surprises from the tax authorities. Accountable likes to make things easier for you. Our app calculates the exact amount of social security contributions you need to pay and reminds you to pay them.

Try Accountable free for 14 days!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about social security refunds

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 ?