Starting as a web freelancer in Belgium

To start as a web freelancer in Belgium you need four things: an enterprise number from the KBO, a social insurance fund, a VAT number even if you never charge VAT, and an invoicing tool that handles Peppol e-invoices.

I started Ovrick on 1 October 2026. This guide sets out the rules and the choices they leave you, with the 2026 figures and where each one comes from. Nothing here is legal, tax or social-security advice. Check your own case with your social insurance fund, an accountant or a lawyer.

Should I start next to a job or full-time?

If you work at least half-time as an employee, you can start in bijberoep, the side-activity status. Interim workers need at least 235 hours a quarter. Otherwise you start in hoofdberoep, the main-activity status.

2026	Bijberoep	Hoofdberoep
Who	Employed at least half-time	Everyone else
Social contributions	Nothing while net taxable income stays under €1,922.16 a year. Above it, 20.5%, with a minimum of €98.51 a quarter	20.5%, with a minimum of €890.42 a quarter, calculated on a minimum income of €17,374.08

These are the official figures without your fund’s management fee, which comes on top.

In the first four quarters of hoofdberoep, a starter can pay a reduced minimum of €459.82 a quarter if their income is €8,972.07 or less. The conditions are strict: the government describes it as for someone who has never been self-employed, or stopped more than five years ago. Ask your fund whether you qualify.

Contributions are provisional at first. Once your real income is known, the fund recalculates and you receive a refund or a supplement. Setting money aside for that supplement is sensible.

If you leave your job, the switch to hoofdberoep applies from the first day of that quarter. You also become hoofdberoep as soon as you stop meeting the bijberoep conditions. Tell your fund straight away.

How do I register, and what does it cost?

You register at an enterprise counter, which enters you in the KBO (the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises). A counter’s registration fee is €111.50 in 2026, and it carries no VAT. Counters add their own file costs for the VAT registration, so compare their price lists.

Choose activity codes for what you will actually invoice.

Do I have to charge VAT?

You need a VAT number either way. The small-business exemption is a VAT regime, not an absence of one.

Under the exemption, turnover up to €25,000 a year means no VAT on your invoices, no periodic VAT returns and no deduction of the VAT you pay on purchases. You keep your VAT number and your invoicing and bookkeeping duties. If you start mid-year, the limit is prorated by days.

Each year, by 31 March, you file the client listing, which reports your total turnover for the previous year. If you pass €25,000 by no more than 10%, you keep the exemption for the rest of that year and lose it from 1 January. If you pass it by more than 10%, the normal regime applies from the transaction that crossed the line.

The exemption suits clients who cannot recover VAT, such as a café or a salon: your price is their final price.

Do I need Peppol if I am under the exemption?

For invoices to Belgian VAT-liable businesses, yes. Since 1 January 2026 those invoices must be structured e-invoices. The official site says the obligation applies if you use the small-business exemption. A PDF sent by email no longer counts.

Invoices to private customers are outside the obligation. You still need to be able to receive structured invoices from your own suppliers. A few narrow exceptions exist, such as businesses that only make transactions exempt under article 44 of the VAT Code. Use the government’s online check to see if you are covered.

FPS Finance showed tolerance for the first three months of 2026, and only to businesses that had taken timely and reasonable steps to comply. That period is over. Self-employed people, liberal professions and small companies can deduct 120% of their subscription costs for invoicing software, and of advice needed to set up e-invoicing, for costs made from 2024 to 2027.

Choose an invoicing tool that handles Peppol, and send yourself a test invoice before the first real one.

What payment terms can I set?

Belgian law sets the defaults for payments between businesses:

Default term. With no term agreed, payment is due within 30 calendar days.
Maximum term. You can agree a longer term, but never more than 60 calendar days.
Late payment. Late interest runs automatically, without a reminder, at the ECB reference rate plus eight percentage points, rounded up to the next half point, unless you agreed otherwise within the legal limits. On top of that comes a flat €40 for collection costs.

Put your term in your quote and invoice. The pricing guide shows how I set mine.

What should a contract cover?

What is included and what is not, the deadline, what the client supplies, revision rounds, payment, ownership, maintenance, liability, how the project can end, personal data, and which court decides.

Two points deserve a clause of their own:

Ownership. Belgian copyright law sets formal requirements for transferring rights. Article XI.167 of the Code of Economic Law says remuneration, scope and duration must be stated, with an exception for some commissioned work outside the cultural sector. Write down what passes to the client, and when.
Personal data. If you host a contact form or mailing list for a client, you process data on their behalf, which makes you a processor under the GDPR. Article 28 requires a written agreement.

Have a lawyer read your terms once. The domain should be in the client’s name from day one. The guide to domain, hosting and email explains why.

How do I price the work?

That has its own guide: how to price websites and maintenance plans.

How do I find clients without breaking the rules?

Two rules apply before you contact anyone:

Email. Advertising email needs the recipient’s prior consent, and you must be able to prove it (article XII.13 of the Code of Economic Law). Every message must explain how to object to future ones.
Phone. Telephone marketing to businesses as well as consumers requires a licence for the Do Not Call Me list, which you check before calling. For an advertiser with 250 employees or fewer, it costs €600 a year or €60 for one month, plus 21% VAT.

A verified Google Business Profile of your own helps you appear in local search.

Where does Ovrick fit in?

Ovrick is my one-person studio in Turnhout. I charge no VAT under article 56bis. Everything above is a starting point, not a template for your case. For how I deliver a site myself, from the first conversation to launch, see the process page.

Where can I read more?

Sources I checked on 11 October 2026:

Starting as a web freelancer in Belgium: what to set up