You’ve made up your mind: you’re starting a sole proprietorship! But do you do so immediately or could it be smart to wait a little while?
Which start date for your company number? 📅
Short answer: it doesn’t matter! The decision has been made, just go for it!
Long answer: there are some things you should ideally pay attention to, as they can save you some unnecessary costs.
For example, there are some taxes you can avoid by choosing a good start date:
- social security contributions;
- additional invoice from the municipal tax;
- additional invoice from the province tax.
Impact on personal income tax 💶
For the annual tax return (the personal income tax return), it makes no difference.
Because if we are talking about a sole proprietorship, tax obligations always coincide with a calendar year. You can’t deviate from that.
Starting a sole proprietorship on January 1 or December 1? It makes no difference. Profits are accumulated for the period up to December 31 and those profits are taxed in personal income tax.
And on January 1 of the following year? Then a new fiscal year begins, running until December 31 of that year.
Impact on social security contributions🫂
Here it is best to choose your start date wisely.
This is because you will pay social security contributions quarterly, even if you start your company number on the last day of a quarter.
The quarters are from:
- January 1 to March 31
- April 1 to June 30
- July 1 to September 31
- October 1 to December 31
Are you excited to get started as an entrepreneur, but the calendar is heading toward the end of a quarter? Then you should go for a start date at the beginning of the next quarter.
Did you know that it is also possible to plan a start date?
You can perfectly go to an enterprise counter, get everything in order for your startup, and have that startup take effect only from a certain date in the future.
Impact on municipal and province tax💸
If you start a business, your municipality and province are going to send you an extra invoice every year (with some exceptions). In a nutshell, you can expect about €100 for the municipality and about €100 for the province.
They’re going to charge as soon as they see an active company number on January 1 of a given year. So do you want to start in the new year? Then put your start date on Jan. 2, which can save you about €200 during your start-up year.
In summary
- You can start a self-employed activity at any time, no doubt about it!
- Ideally, you should not start during the last days of a quarter, otherwise you will still be paying social security contributions for that quarter.
- Want to start on January 1? Then choose January 2 as your start date. That way you immediately avoid some extra costs from your municipality and province.
Would you like to receive more tips on starting your business? Discover our 10-step plan for launching a sole proprietorship here!
