Do Belgian SMEs enjoy a reduced tax rate?

Prerequisite

You do not get the rate of 20% just like that, there is an important condition attached to it. There must be a minimum remuneration of 45,000 euros for a natural person-director, ie compensation paid to a person of flesh and blood (not a company). This remuneration entails some extra charges: you owe social contributions on it and the amount paid out is taxed in personal income tax. Now you may ask yourself: how can I meet that condition if my company does not even make a profit of 45,000 euros? In that case, the legislation provides that you must pay out half of the taxable profit in order to still be eligible for the reduced rate.

If you have several companies with the same director, there is a limit of 75,000 euros and you are not obliged to pay out 45,000 euros per company as remuneration. If you pay too little, there is a levy of 5% tax on the part that was actually paid too little.

Starters

In the case of young companies, you do not have to take into account the minimum remuneration requirement in the first four years (4 financial years) of their existence. We do speak of young companies and deliberately not of young companies because if your company continues the activities of a sole proprietorship, you are not eligible for this start-up scheme. One will therefore look at when the first registration in the CBE (Kruispuntbank Ondernemingen) dates.