{"id":94810,"date":"2026-04-15T12:10:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/taxes-on-losses-everything-you-need-to-know\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T13:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T11:26:42","slug":"taxes-on-losses-everything-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/blog\/taxes-on-losses-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxes on losses as a sole proprietor: everything you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many self-employed people wonder about this, and the question comes up regularly in our <a href=\"https:\/\/go.dexxter.be\/community\/question\/riuf7tdueww2kxss\">Dexxter community<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u201cI made a loss last year as a self-employed person. Do I still have to pay taxes? And what about my advance payments?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For many start-ups, making a loss in the first year (and even beyond) is not unusual. But what does this mean for your tax situation? In this article, we clearly explain how <strong>losses as a self-employed person<\/strong> affect your <strong>tax return<\/strong> and what happens to your advance payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Do you have to pay tax if you make a loss as a self-employed person?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>No<\/strong>, if you make a (tax) loss, you pay <a href=\"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/personal-income-tax-as-a-self-employed-person\/\"><strong>no taxes<\/strong><\/a><strong> on your self-employed activity<\/strong>. However, that loss does have an impact on your overall tax return. In Belgium, your tax is calculated on your total taxable income, so this includes any other income (such as a salary as an employee).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Example:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You are an employee and earn a gross salary of \u20ac50,000.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You make a loss of \u20ac5,000 as a self-employed person.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Your taxable income then becomes: \u20ac50,000 &#8211; \u20ac5,000 = \u20ac45,000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This means you <strong>pay less tax<\/strong> thanks to your loss as a self-employed person. The loss therefore reduces your total tax burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tip from an accountant<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2018Be aware that if you make a loss for more than 3 years, the likelihood of a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/how-likely-are-you-to-get-a-tax-audit-as-a-sole-proprietor\/\"><em>tax audit<\/em><\/a><em>increases.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What if you made advance payments?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If, as a self-employed person, you made advance payments but ultimately made a loss, those <strong>advance payments will be paid back<\/strong> via your tax return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Example:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Normally, you\u2019d get \u20ac1,000 back via your personal income tax return. So your salary as an employee, the loss as a self-employed person, mortgage payments, pension savings \u2013 you name it. All added together, these amount to an amount of \u20ac1,000 to be returned.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You\u2019ve also made \u20ac2,000 in advance payments through your self-employed activity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In that case, you will receive a total of \u20ac3,000 back from the tax authorities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83d\udca1 <strong>Important:<\/strong> you don\u2019t need to do anything; the tax authorities process this automatically based on your personal income tax return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is the difference between an accounting loss and a tax loss<\/strong>?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These two terms are very similar, but they mean slightly different things. It is important to distinguish between them, especially if you want to fill in your taxes correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Accounting loss<\/strong>: This is the difference between all your income and your expenses. If your expenses exceed your income, you make an accounting loss. Here, everything is viewed without any tax adjustments.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tax loss<\/strong>: This is the loss that remains after the tax authorities have limited or disallowed certain costs. Take car expenses, for example: you are not always allowed to deduct these in full. The tax loss may therefore be smaller than your accounting loss.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tax authorities do not accept all the costs you include in your accounts. Some expenses are fully or partially <strong>excluded<\/strong> or <strong>limited<\/strong> in the tax calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83d\udc49 Examples of costs that are (partially) disallowed for tax purposes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Car expenses<\/strong>: often only 50% to 75% deductible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Entertainment expenses<\/strong> (such as restaurant visits): often only partially deductible.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Non-verifiable costs<\/strong>: expenses without a valid invoice or supporting document.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u27a1\ufe0f In a nutshell<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Accounting loss = income \u2013 expenses<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tax loss = updated accounts in accordance with tax rules<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A quick example:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You make an accounting loss of <strong>\u20ac5,000<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>However, <strong>\u20ac1,000<\/strong> of your expenses are not accepted by the tax authorities (for example, because they are only partially deductible).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u27a1\ufe0f In that case, your <strong>tax loss is only \u20ac4,000<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>View the video: taxes on losses in your first year<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/1177649521?share=copy&#038;fl=sv&#038;fe=ci\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>video<\/strong><\/a>below, we also provide an explanation of what happens if you make a loss as a self-employed person, how this affects your tax, and what advance payments mean in this context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Loss incurred\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1177649521?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Making a loss as a self-employed person affects your tax return<\/strong>, but you do not pay <strong>any taxes on a negative result<\/strong> as a self-employed person. What\u2019s more, you\u2019ll get any advance payments back, and your loss can reduce your total tax liability when combined with other income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Making a loss in your start-up year is normal, and sometimes even tax-efficient. Just make sure your accounts are in order!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do you have any questions? <a href=\"https:\/\/go.dexxter.be\/community\/question\/riuf7tdueww2kxss\">Ask them in our community<\/a> or contact our support team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many self-employed people wonder about this, and the question comes up regularly in our Dexxter community: \u201cI made a loss last year as a self-employed person. Do I still have to pay taxes? And what about my advance payments?\u201d For many start-ups, making a loss in the first year (and even beyond) is not unusual. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-income-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94811,"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94810\/revisions\/94811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dexxter.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}