Social security contributions are an important part of your financial obligations as an independent sole proprietor. In this article, you will discover what the options are, so that you do not pay unnecessary costs and do not encounter unpleasant surprises. 💪
Three options to update your social security contributions
Depending on your specific situation, you have three options to adjust your social security contributions:
1️⃣ Paying the proposed amount.
If your income remains relatively stable, you can simply pay the amount your social insurance fund proposes. Any differences will be settled later without penalties.
2️⃣ Increase the proposed amount
Are you expecting a higher income? Then it makes sense to proactively increase your contributions via your social insurance fund’s online tool. This way, you avoid a large additional payment afterwards.
3️⃣ Reduce the proposed amount
Are you anticipating a lower income than the contributions are based on? Then you can request a reduction from your social insurance fund. Note that you must be able to substantiate this with evidence.
The choice is yours, but remember:
Smart adjustments to your social security contributions can avoid unpleasant surprises in the future.
Roadmap for increasing or decreasing social security contributions
Increase social security contributions 📈
Think you are paying too few social security contributions to be paid in relation to your current income? Then it’s time to increase them! Here’s a step-by-step approach:
| Increase social security contributions | |
|---|---|
| Calculate your expected income 🧮 | Make a realistic estimate of your net professional income (your profit so to speak) for the entire current year, taking into account factors such as growth, new projects or contracts. |
| Compare with current contributions ⚖️ | Determine how much you are currently paying in social security contributions and compare this with the amount you would have to pay based on your expected profits for the whole of that year. |
| Change your social security contributions 📝 | Most social insurance funds offer an online tool to edit your contributions. Log in to your personal portal and increase your contributions to the desired level. |
| Check your mailbox 📥 | After the adjustment, you will receive a new payment message with the updated amount for all quarters! This means: an adjustment of the quarters you have already paid during the year and, of course, an adjustment of the future contributions you still have to receive on your services. |
By increasing your contributions in good time, you avoid a large additional payment afterwards.
Reducing social security contributions 📉
Is your sole proprietor facing a temporary drop in income due to circumstances such as a crisis, illness or bankruptcy? If so, you may want to consider reducing your social security contributions. Here’s how to go about this:
| Increase in social security contributions | |
|---|---|
| Calculate your expected income 🧮 | Make a realistic estimate of your net professional income (your profit so to speak) for the current year, taking into account the impact from the circumstances. |
| Evidence 📃 | Your social insurance fund will question you to provide objective evidence supporting the drop in income, such as invoices, bank statements or statements from customers or suppliers. |
| Submit a request 📧 | You can submit a reduction request via your social insurance fund’s online portal or by email. |
| Check your mailbox 📥 | If approved, you will receive a new payment notification with the reduced amount for the coming quarters. As well as an adjustment of your already paid social security contributions for that year! So here you will have some credit, which will be offset against your social security contributions to be paid. |
Be careful if your income is higher than expected! ⚠️
Tip: If your income ends up being higher than expected, you will have to pay the missing contributions. So avoid underestimating to avoid extra costs.
Dexxter, the accounting tool for Belgian sole proprietors
With Dexxter you know at a glance how much social security contributions you should pay depending on your social status and income as a self-employed person!
