If you are starting a business then you may come across the word nace codes. Nace codes, also known as nacebel codes or nacebel, indicate the activities that a business performs correctly.
They are unique codes used to uniformly name all kinds of activities you can perform as a self-employed person. Because each company has Nace codes, the government knows what activities the company is performing.
Practical example
If you, as an entrepreneur, start working as a plumber, you can indicate the next Nace codes, for example:
43.299: Other building installations
43.221: Plumbing work
43.222: Installation of heating, air-conditioning and ventilation equipment
By the way, did you know that you can easily find the nacebel codes of any Belgian entrepreneur via the KBO? This is a publicly accessible database in which you can find the nacebel codes from any entrepreneur. Discover all about it in our video:
Why do they exist?
Nace codes are certainly useful. On the one hand, they offer something to hold on to; it is a defined list of all the activities you can carry out as a self-employed person. Sometimes it is a bit of a search which activities you want to include from that list, but you already have the structure of the list.
Would you like to take a look at the complete list? You can find it here.
On the other hand, the government can also easily draw conclusions based on nacebel codes. Each self-employed plumber may articulate his activities slightly differently, making them harder to bundle as one for static purposes. But each self-employed plumber will have the nacebel code ‘43.221: Plumbing’, making it easy for the government to find out exactly how many self-employed plumbers are currently working in Belgium.
Why are they important to you?
When you start doing business, your recognised enterprise office is going to question you to describe all the things you want to do as a self-employed person. You can simply explain this in human language, after which the enterprise office will translate it into the nacebel codes.
Tip:
Also think well about what activities you want to carry out in the future and add them immediately, as updating your nacebel codes costs €105.5.
Besides correctly identifying companies, other reasons why using nacebel codes correctly are crucial:
- Going to court for an outstanding sales invoice?
Your customer does not want to pay? Suppose you have to go to court one day to hopefully get that outstanding sales invoice paid. Well then, it will only be for activities included in your nacebel codes. If not, the court will declare your claim inadmissible.
- Subsidies and compensations 📈
As an entrepreneur, you can apply for many subsidies and compensations, but – you can already feel us coming – you can only effectively obtain these if the nacebel codes also match your the activity for which you are applying for a subsidy or compensation.
Think, for example, of the subsidies granted as part of the corona crisis. You could only appeal to that if the nacebel codes in the CBE also matched the activities for which you applied for support measures.
- Fines 💶
It is fortunately not too common, but the government does have the ability to impose monetary fines if your nacebel codes do not match or do not fully match your actual activities.
In particular, effectively performing an activity while it is not included in your nacebel codes poses a problem here. If you have had nacebel codes added from activities that you don’t get to in practice, this does not pose a problem.
Although fortunately it rarely comes to the point where fines are effectively handed out, in the first instance you will be asked to bring your nacebel codes back up to date as soon as possible and add the missing ones.
How do I update my nacebel codes and what does it cost?
At start-up, your nacebel codes are registered and this is included in the fixed start-up costs that a recognised enterprise office charges.
The nice thing about this is that no matter how many activities you pass on, it does not affect the cost of the start-up. So it’s perfectly possible to pass on just one activity, but you can just as easily pass on 105.5 activities, which will not change the cost price of your incorporation.
Do you want to make a change to your nacebel codes after your start-up? Then that will cost you €105.5. No matter how many nacebel codes you delete or add at once, the cost price is always €105.5.
