What is a personal income tax return?🔎
Personal income tax declaration is literally declaring your income to the tax authorities. So you will make a summary of everything you earned and spent in the past year. Based on this, the Belgian government can then determine how much taxes you have to pay.
This return is required by law, and can be done either online or on paper. If you are self-employed in secondary occupation or a self-employed student, it consists of two parts.
Part 1 personal income tax
Every year, everyone has to fill in part 1 of the tax return. Here you indicate how much you earned as an employee, pension savings, purchased service cheques, and so on. Based on this amount, the tax authorities of Belgium will then draw up the bill to let you know how much taxes you have to pay.
Attention!
Even if you did absolutely nothing, no salary as an employee, no pension savings, etc., you still have to submit part 1 of the personal income tax.
Part 2 personal income tax: The additional part for self-employed persons
If you are a sole proprietor, you also file a personal income tax return every year. You still fill in part 1, but now you also fill in part 2.
This is still the same return as always, only a small section is added. Here you enter the income and costs from your self-employed activities.
When do I file my declarations? ⌛
The exact date varies a bit each year, but if you file your declarations online, you can assume that you have to file your personal income tax by mid-July at the latest if you are going to file it yourself. This is the classic filing deadline that counts just as much as a private person.
If you go for a paper return, your deadline is already the end of June.
How to file? Tax-On-Web/MyMinfin
The easiest way to do your declarations is online. To do so, you can use the Tax-On-Web tool. You can find it via the government website MyMinfin.
It remains the same tax letter that everyone has to submit every year, only with a few small additions for your self-employed activities.
The classic data, such as salary as an employee, a loan for your home, pension savings, services cheques, etc., end up in part 1 of the personal income tax. This is also the part everyone has to fill in every year.
The figures for your self-employed activities are then included in part 2 of this return. If it is the first time you have to add part 2, you have to click on the options via Tax-On-Web to add part 2.
Proposal of simplified declarations
Sometimes you will receive on a proposal of simplified declarations from the tax authorities. The tax authorities have then already filled in your tax letter based on the data they have.
So the proposal you received on is effectively only a proposal, an estimate from the tax authorities. If you are self-employed in activities, this proposal will never be correct! So you still always have to fill in your personal income tax yourself in this case.
Tip:
Via Dexxter , you fill in your personal income tax in just a few steps, tailored to the income and expenses of your sole proprietors.