Rates and payment deadline for the
2021 company contribution
June 2021 – The annual company contribution for the social status of the self-employed is a social contribution that companies have to pay in order to finance pensions and health insurance for the self-employed. What are the rates for 2021?
Who pays?
Every year companies have to pay a contribution that is used to finance pensions and health insurance for the self-employed. The company itself does not benefit from this.
The contribution is payable by all companies subject to income tax in Belgium, whether Belgian corporation tax or non-resident tax/Belgian companies.
If you find yourself in one of these two situations, your company must join a social insurance fund and then, in principle, becomes liable for the contribution.
How much is it?
There are only two rates. The rate to be paid - normal rate or reduced rate - depends on the balance sheet total.
The reduced rate is, as last year, 347.50 euros. The normal rate also remains unchanged at 868 euros.
The maximum amount of the balance sheet total increases slightly as a result of indexation. It increases from 702,954.74 euros to 706,579.60 euros.
What about start-up companies?
Start-up companies are only liable to pay the levy for the year in which they are incorporated if they were incorporated before 1 April of the levy year. A company incorporated on or after 1 April 2021 is therefore not liable to pay the levy for 2021.
The contribution to be paid for the first two years of liability is always the reduced contribution of 347.50 euros. Thereafter, the contribution to be paid depends on the balance sheet total of the second last financial year. For the contribution in 2021, the balance sheet total at the end of 2019 must therefore be used as a basis.
It should also be noted that companies are not liable for any assessment for the first three years after incorporation provided that a) the company is not a public limited company and b) all the authorised representatives and a majority of the active partners who are not authorised representatives have been independent for a maximum of three years during the ten years preceding the incorporation of the company.
You can apply for an exemption for the years when your company is not active. In this case, you must request a certificate of non-activity from the Federal Public Service Finance, Company Control Department.
When to pay?
In principle, the contribution payable by companies is due on 1 July of the contribution year. In 2020, following a change in the law, the deadline for payment has been postponed to 31 October 2020 on a one-off basis (and no surcharge for late payment has been charged until 31 December 2020).
A postponement is also foreseen for 2021. Parliament has approved a law that extends the payment deadline to 31 December 2021.
