{"id":711,"date":"2019-07-05T13:48:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T11:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prod-migration-second.local\/?p=711"},"modified":"2022-08-11T19:53:48","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T17:53:48","slug":"ready-to-become-self-employed-in-a-secondary-occupation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.accountable.eu\/en-be\/blog\/ready-to-become-self-employed-in-a-secondary-occupation\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready to become self-employed in a secondary occupation?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Self-employed in a secondary occupation is a great way to test a new idea while staying focused on your full-time job.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also how you can generate some revenue from a hobby, or even make ends meet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More importantly, self-employed in a secondary occupation is a status:\u00a0 a self-employed in a secondary occupation already has another status, another occupation that guarantees his or her social rights.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We explain all about it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Are you a self-employed in a secondary occupation \ud83d\ude4b\u200d\u2642\ufe0f <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You could be:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Part-time employee (at least half-time)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Teacher for at least 50% of a full schedule (if you are not yet appointed by the Ministry of Education) or 60% of a full-time schedule (if you are appointed by the Ministry of Education)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In early retirement<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unemployed and the ONEM\/RVA allows you to pursue a secondary occupation: in the frame of the Tremplin ind\u00e9pendant\/Springplank, you remain entitled to your unemployment benefits for twelve months while being self-employed in a secondary occupation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Benefiting from an indemnity of your mutual insurance (this indemnity is linked to a job as an employee prior to the incapacity).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AND<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Self-employed in a secondary occupation<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Otherwise, you are a full-time self-employed. As such, you acquire and maintain social coverage through his\/her self-employed activity. A self-employed in a secondary occupation acquires social coverage through his\/her main status, be it, employee, retired, unemployed, under the mutual insurance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social contributions for self-employed as a secondary occupation <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\ud83e\udd1d<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You do not acquire social coverage through your activity in secondary occupation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet you have to pay social contributions, for solidarity purposes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social contributions for self-employed in a secondary occupation amount to 20,5% of their revenues. This is the same proportion as the one applied to full-time self-employed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When starting, it is not easy to predict revenues with certainty: self-employed in a secondary occupation can opt for provisional, minimal, social contributions of \u20ac82,84, equivalent to 20,5% of a yearly revenue of \u20ac1.553,58.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you assume that your yearly revenues will exceed that amount, adapt your social contributions immediately. This is how you avoid a (bad) surprise two years later, as the tax administration shares your actual revenues with your social insurance fund.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alternatively, if your revenue as complementary self-employed is under \u20ac1.553,58 (2021), you would be reimbursed of your provisional social contributions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Accountable helps you estimate the amount of social contributions you should pay: go to the \u201ctaxes\u201d screen, \u201csocial contributions\u201d part. Once you have answered a couple of questions, that part of the app will provide you with the exact amount of social contributions that you should pay every trimester to avoid a bad surprise in two years from now.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increased workload, increased revenues, increased\u2026 taxes<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\ud83d\udcaa\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Belgian taxes increase in parallel with your salary level. The revenue from your secondary occupation comes on top of your salary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is likely that these additional revenues fall into a higher tax bracket and are taxed at the highest marginal rate. In order to avoid such an escalation, you should carefully capture your professional expenses.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flat-rate professional expenses? Good news for SOME of you<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u26a1<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since 2018, all self-employed (natural persons) are allowed to opt for flat-rate professional expenses, instead of actual professional expenses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With flat-rate professional expenses, you no longer think about your receipts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You simply deduct \u20ac4810 (revenues of 2019) of your earnings. On top of that, you can deduct your social contributions and material purchase.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is up to you to determine what is most advantageous for you. Flat-rate professional expenses are mostly good for self-employed workers who have very limited professional expenses. With actual professional expenses, you impact directly your tax base. The risk of falling into a higher tax bracket is under your control.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you do not include professional expenses, tax authorities will take into account by default flat-rate professional expenses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Become self-employed, step by step \u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u270d\ufe0f<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No matter whether you are part or full-time self-employed, you have to complete specific steps before starting. You should register with the Crossroad Bank of Enterprises, pay for it (\u20ac90.5 in 2021). You also must register with a Social Security Fund. If you want one, you need to ask for a VAT number. We also recommend you to open a bank account specifically dedicated to your freelance activities. If you are a legal person, you are obliged to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can register as a self-employed within Accountable in a couple of swipes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you become a full-time self-employed, that new status applies from the first day of the quarter where the change took place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E.g.: you leave your job as an employee on February 15th and become full-time self-employed then. You will be considered as a full-time self-employed from January 1st.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you become self-employed in a secondary occupation, that new status applies from the first day of the quarter that follows the change in status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E.g: From full-time self-employed worker, you become an employee and a self-employed in a secondary occupation on December 1, 2018. You will be considered as a self-employed as a secondary occupation from January 1, 2019. You will pay the social contributions of a full-time self-employed for the entire last quarter of 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether you switch from part-time to full-time self-employed or the other way around, make sure to notify your Social Insurance Funds within 15 days.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\ud83d\udca1<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> VAT\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your yearly revenues are under \u20ac,25.000 you can opt for the VAT exemption scheme. You do not have to charge VAT to your clients, you do not have to submit a VAT return. On the other hand, you are not allowed to deduct VAT on your suppliers\u2019 invoices.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before taking a decision,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u23f8\ufe0f<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and go through this check-list<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u23ef\ufe0f<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a self-employed as a secondary occupation, will I remain competitive compared to competitors who are full-time self-employed?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Am I sure that I am not competing with my employer?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does my professional and private lives leave me enough time and mental space to start a secondary occupation?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you answer \u201cyes\u201d to all three questions\u2026 we wish you a great time as a self-employed in a secondary occupation!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Self-employed in a secondary occupation is a great way to test a new idea while staying focused on your full-time job.\u00a0 It is also how you can generate some revenue from a hobby, or even make ends meet. More importantly, self-employed in a secondary occupation is a status:\u00a0 a self-employed in a secondary occupation already [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[247,256],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-complementary","tag-become-self-employed","tag-secondary-occupation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ready to become self-employed in a secondary occupation? - Accountable<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Self-employed in a secondary occupation is a great way to test a new idea while staying focused on your full-time job. We explain all about it!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.accountable.eu\/en-be\/blog\/ready-to-become-self-employed-in-a-secondary-occupation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ready to become self-employed in a secondary occupation? - Accountable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Self-employed in a secondary occupation is a great way to test a new idea while staying focused on your full-time job. 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