Payroll Newsletter Q1 2023
Indexations January 2023
As from January 1st , 2023 an adjustment will take place of the consumer price index for the wages of the joint labour committee 200.
The most recent prognosis (one month before application) for the index increase on wages in JLC 200, is 11,08%.
Consequently, the December 2022 salary of the employees of your company will need to be increased from January 2023 onwards. Your payroll consultant will take this into account for the January payroll of 2023.
Company cars – solidarity contribution 2023
As from 01/01/2023 the solidarity contribution for company cars based on CO2 emission will be calculated according to a different formula:
Fuel type | Formula |
Petrol | CO2 known: [(Y x 9 EUR) - 768] / 12 x 171,64/114,08 |
Diesel | CO2 known: [(Y x 9 EUR) - 600] / 12 x 171,64/114,08 |
LPG/CNG | [(Y x 9 EUR) - 990] / 12 x 171,64/114,08 |
Electric | 31,34 EUR per month (= minimum contribution) |
Furthermore, the reference CO2 emissions to calculate the taxable benefit in kind for income year 2023 has been published. To determine the CO2 percentage, the vehicle's CO2 emissions are compared to a reference CO2 emission. For 2023, these reference CO2 emissions are:
- 82 g/km for vehicles with a gasoline, LPG or natural gas engine;
- 67 g/km for vehicles with diesel engines.
The CO2 base rate is 5.5% for the aforementioned reference CO2 emissions. If the emissions of the vehicle concerned are higher/lower than the reference CO2 emissions, the basic percentage is increased/decreased by 0.1 % per CO2 gram. The
CO2 percentage must be a minimum of 4 %. The maximum CO2 percentage is 18 %.
End of “relance-hours”
As a reminder, it was possible for employees to work up to 120 hours voluntary overtime (the “relance-hours”) in addition to the 100 hours of "regular" voluntary overtime. This regime of “relance-hours” ended in December 2022.
As of January 2023, it is therefore no longer possible to apply this system. Regular voluntary overtime is still applicable.
Increase of the student quota
As from 1 January 2023, students can work up to 600 hours per year with the application of reduced social security contributions.
After the 600 hours of work, the salary paid to the student will be subject to normal social
security contributions (as for an employee).
End of simplified procedure for temporary unemployment
As from 1 January 2023, it is not possible any more to apply the simplified procedure for temporary economic unemployment or temporary unemployment due to force majeure. As from that date, the regular procedure, as it was applicable before March 2020 needs to be followed.
Announced flash audits 2023
Every year, the Belgian social inspection service (in Dutch: ‘Sociale Inlichtingen- en Opsporingsdienst’ (SIOD); in French: ‘Service d’Information et de Recherche Sociale (SIRS)’ announces which sectors can expect to undergo so-called “flash audits”.
These flash audits are announced national inspections in which the company is subjected to several inspections at the same time, from the labour inspectors and the different services of the social security authorities.
Flash audits have mainly an informative and preventive character. Nevertheless, the inspectorates can (and will) also act decisively during flash controls and, if necessary, issue an official report when they have encountered serious infringements.
The following flash audits are scheduled for 2023:
- February 2023: the transport sector
- April 2023: the construction sector (including electrical engineering and metal)
- June 2023: the hotel and catering industry
- August 2023: the cleaning sector
- October 2023: the green sectors
- December 2023: the meat sector
If your sector is not included in the announced planning for 2023, please note that the Belgian social authorities can always perform an unannounced inspection of your company. Over the past years, the Belgian social authorities have made stronger efforts in their fight against social fraud. As such, social legislation must always be respected.
In addition to offences of undeclared work (NSSO declaration) and illegal employment (single permit and work permits), the social inspectors will examine, among other things, the following in your company:
- The labour regulations including all work schedules and the mandatory annexes (such as the
- annex psychosocial risks and the new mentions in connection with the predictable working
- conditions and the labour deal);
- The employment contracts and annexes (part-time employment contracts, student contracts,
- agency contracts);
- The DIMONA declaration;
- The compulsory work accident insurance;
- In addition, inspectors will also check for false self-employment.
If desired, we can further assist you in preparing the abovementioned inspections and ensure your company is compliant with the social legislation.
Increase of mileage allowance
As from 1 January 2023 the mileage allowance (total amount accepted by the NSSO) will be increased to 0,4259 EUR/km.
This is only applicable, if agreed upon in the company, to employees using private transport for commuting and for business travel.
Additionally, in order to respond more quickly to fluctuations in fuel prices, as of October 1, 2022, the amount of the mileage allowance will be revised quarterly.
Increase of homeworking allowance
As from 1 January 2023, the homeworking allowance (total amount accepted by the NSSO) will be increased to 148,73 EUR/month.
Limitation of wage seizure and wage transfer
As a reminder, when a creditor is seeking to obtain payment of the amounts due to him by a debtor, the creditor may apply directly to the employer of the debtor. The creditor can do this by seizure or transfer on the net salary of the employee.
Please note that only a part of the net salary can be transferred or seized. Indeed, the law provides income brackets within which the amount that can be transferred or seized is determined. One speaks of the wage amounts susceptible to transfer or seizure.
The method of calculating these amounts differs depending on whether they are professional
income or replacement income.
These new amounts subject to transfer or seizure must be applied for all payments made from 1 January 2023.
Net monthly salary | Part subject to transfer or seizure | |
Professional income | Replacement income | |
Up to 1.316 EUR | Nothing | Nothing |
1.316 EUR - 1.414 EUR | 19,60 EUR | 19,60 EUR |
1.414 EUR - 1.560 EUR | 43,80 EUR | 58,40 EUR |
1.560 EUR - 1.706 EUR | 58,40 EUR | 58,40 EUR |
> 1.706 EUR | Entire amount | Entire amount |
Cost proper to the employer – Belgian tax form 281.10/20
From 1 January 2022, the actual amount of expenses proper to the employer must be stated on the Belgian tax form 281.10 (employee) or 281.20 (director) and on the summary statement.
As such, the Belgian tax authorities want to be able to exercise more control over the expense reimbursements an employer grants to its employees and/or directors. If this reporting obligation is not met, the company risks - depending on the type of expense reimbursement - an administrative fine, an assessment of secret commission or the non-deductibility of the expense reimbursement as a professional expense.
NSSO – Structural reduction from 1 January 2023
As a reminder, the structural reduction is a measure to reduce basic employer’s social security contributions.
The amount of the reduction varies according to the category to which the employee belongs, his quarterly salary and his performance.
Public sector and private sector employers enjoy a structural reduction in their social security contributions for employees fully subject to social security, divided in 3 categories and provided they meet certain conditions.
From 1 January 2023, the amounts of this quarterly reduction will change and will be calculated as follows:
Structural reduction of | Gross amounts in EUR / quarter | |
Category 1 | 0 + 0,1400 x (10.585,95 – S) + 0,4000 x (6.375,19 – S) | |
Category 2 | 79,00 + 0,2557 x (8.892,89 – S) + 0,4000 x (6.547,52 – S) + 0,0600 x (W -15.524,27) | |
Category 3 | Worker | 0,1400 x (11.470,54 – S) + 0,4000 x (6.375,19 – S) |
Disabled worker | 495,00 + 0,1785 x (10.890,57 – S) + 0,4000 x (6.375,19 – S) | |
Additional NSSO measure:
Following the increasing wage cost due to the (high) indexation/inflation, the NSSO have implemented a temporary NSSO reduction on the Belgian employer's NSSO contributions for Q1/2023 and Q2/2023.
The reduction amounts to 7,07% of the ‘net global employer contributions’ that will be due for the first and second quarter of 2023. The 'net global employer contributions' is the amount of the NSSO basic employer contributions minus the NSSO structural reductions and the NSSO target group reductions.
New regime for copyrights in Belgium as from 2023
A. Introduction
Following the law of 26 December 2022 (published on 30 December 2022), Belgium refreshed its copyrights taxation
regime. These new rules are applicable since 1 January 2023 even if a transition period of one year is foreseen during which the old regime can still be applied to a certain extent.
B. New conditions
For whom and for what ?
The new law of 26 December 2022 has a more limited scope than before as the new copyrights taxation regime only applies to someone :
- who is creating literary, scientific or artistic works ;
- and which are meant to be operated or used ;
- and fulfil at least one of the three following conditions :
o He/she owns a certificate of artist received by the Belgian artistic commission;
o He/she transfers his/her intellectual rights to someone who realize a communication or a representation to public of this work or reproduce this work ;
o He/she perceives copyrights royalty's trough a collective management organization.
Based on the above conditions and after the Minister of finances precisions, the copyrights tax regime will be very difficult and risky to apply to computer programs design. The Minister explained that the goal of the new bench of rules was to properly exclude such use of the derogatory tax regime.
C. Tax rates, limits and costs deductions
If copyright royalties are perceived outside of the frame of the professional activity, the royalties are taxed at a flat-tax rate of 15% as movable income.
If the copyrights royalties are perceived in the frame of the professional activity, and if the annual amounts of copyrights royalties are below 70.220 € (2023 income year), and in the case of additional remuneration for services other than the granting of copyrights, the remuneration related to copyright may not exceed 50% (40% in 2024 and 30% in 2025) of the total remuneration granted to the employee, the royalties are taxed at a flat-tax rate of 15% as movable income.
If copyright royalties are perceived in the frame of the professional activity, but do not respect one of the two cumulative conditions mentioned above, the income perceived above these two limitations will be subject to the classical progressive income tax rates varying between 25% and 50%.
Furthermore, if someone has perceived copyrights above the limit of 70.220 € during 4 years in a row, the copyrights of the next year will be automatically qualified as professional income even for the income below the limit of 70.220 €.
Finally, it is important to highlight that the new regime still includes a deduction of costs on copyrights royalties amounting to (2023 amounts) :
- 50 % on the first 18.720 € perceived as copyrights income ;
- 25 % on the copyright's income perceived between 18,720 € and 37.450 € ;
- no deduction of costs is allowed above 37.450 €.
D. Transition period
The new law still allows to apply the old regime of copyrights during the year 2023 for everyone who perceived copyrights in 2022, but nevertheless limits the application of this old regime.
Indeed, the new law divides by two the possible deduction of costs (see above) for the old regime and reduces by two the limit (35.110 € instead of 70.220 €) under which copyrights are taxed at 15% in the frame of the professional activity.
The previous rulings made under the scope of the old regime remain applicable in 2023 with the limitations explained above.
E. Conclusion
As the tax authorities will follow the Minister’s interpretation of the legal text, companies which decide to still apply the new copyrights tax regime to its IT specialists will face an uncertain and long legal battle.
We therefore advise companies intending to implement or continue to apply the copyright regime to carefully analyze whether they can still apply this regime to the creative works of their employees.
The transition period can be useful for such type of clients, but its limitations (duration and amounts) require the companies to already explain and anticipate the impact of the new regime to their previous eligible employees.
Our team remains at your disposal in case of questions or if you require assistance and will keep you updated of any further developments.
Saturday remains a working day
The new Civil Code provides that from January 1, 2023, Saturday will no longer be a working day. However, this rule does not apply in labor law, social security and social assistance.
The change in the new Civil Code from January 1, 2023 would have had far-reaching consequences for, for example, the time when a notice of termination would have to be sent via registered mail, as this would have had to be done on Tuesday instead of Wednesday from January 1, 2023.
This is thus no longer the case. A change in the law now ensures that Saturday in the areas of labor law, social law and social assistance will continue to have the character of a working day. Thus, in the future, termination letters may still be sent by registered mail on Wednesday to take effect on the next Monday (provided there is no holiday between Wednesday and Monday).
New regulation on incapacity for work during annual leave
A preliminary draft law was approved that regulates the labour law framework for an incapacity for work due to illness or accident that occurs during the employee's annual holiday.
This new regulation provides that the employee can ask to retain his holidays coinciding with the days of incapacity for work. Therefore, the employee will have to respect certain conditions:
- The employee must immediately inform his employer of his residence address if he is not at his home address.
- He must present a medical certificate to the employer, even if this is not required under the normal rules.
- No later than when he submits this medical certificate, the employee shall inform his employer that he wishes to exercise his right to retain his holidays coinciding with the days of incapacity for work from the end of the period of incapacity for work.
- The employee is entitled to a guaranteed salary for the days of incapacity coinciding with the holidays.
This preliminary draft law has been approved but is not yet officially published. This means that this new regulation has not yet entered into force yet. We will keep you informed when this will happen.
Passivity of the employee in proceedings for termination of contract due to medical force majeure
Since the new procedure for the reintegration process for long-term sick employees, the termination of the employment agreement due to medical force majeure is separated from the reintegration process.
The procedure to terminate the employment contract due to medical force majeure has also been adjusted.
By separating the two procedure, the legislator also wanted to focus on the reintegration of employees who suffer from a long-term illness and only to terminate the agreement of these employees who do not respond. Therefor, the reintegration process is considered terminated if the employee was invited to an examination 3 times but did not respond.
In the context of this medical force majeure procedure, the prevention advisor-labour doctor must invite the employee 3 times for an examination. If the employee does not accept the invitation, the prevention advisor-labour doctor must notify the employer.
The further consequences of the employee's passive attitude are unclear for the time being. No clear sanction was provided, but based on existing case law, a dismissal for serious cause could be justified.
New rules on absence due to incapacity for work
As part of the legislative changes regarding long-term disability, the legislator created a new obligation for the employer of an employee in incapacity for work.
Indeed, it is now required that the prevention advisor-labour doctor contacts the employee in incapacity for work after 4 weeks of absence. During this contact, the employee is informed about the various options when returning to work, i.e. a pre-employment visit or a reintegration program.
However, this requires the cooperation of the employer, who must inform its labour doctor in good time if an employee is in incapacity for work for 4 weeks (or more). This obligation applies to all employees.
Entry into force: 1 October 2022
Adjusted wage limits for 2023
On 1 January 2023, the salary ceilings from the Employment Contracts Act will increase. The reason is annual indexation. The ceilings are important for the application of the training clause, non-compete clause.
Legal basic amount | Indexed amount in 2022 | Indexed amount in 2023 | Impact on |
16.100 euro | 36.785 euro | 39.353 euro | Non-compete clause and training clause |
32.200 euro | 73.571 euro | 78.706 euro | Non-compete clause |
Paid educational leave (VOV)
Specific to the school year 2022-2023, there is an additional credit for courses if the employer takes initiative to propose a course to the employee and the employee agrees to it.
If the employee agrees to follow a course at the employer's suggestion, he/she will receive an additional entitlement to a maximum of 125 hours of paid educational leave.
So, in total the employee will be entitled to a total of 250 hours of paid educational leave.
Furthermore, the amount of the normal wage considered for reimbursement for hours of paid educational leave is increased to EUR 3,170 for the 2022-2023 school year. For the 2021-2022 school year, the wage ceiling was EUR 3,047.
Belgian wage withholding tax calculation 2023
As of January 1, 2023, the method in calculating the Belgian wage withholding tax on a monthly basis on the salaries of employees and directors, pensions and unemployment benefits has been modified. Following the proposal of the finance minister, the scales of the Belgian withholding tax will no longer be rounded to the lower multiple of 15 EUR as this measure predates the use of computers, when the withholding tax due had to be read in a table.
As this is no longer appropriate in this digital era, the Belgian wage withholding tax will be calculated based on the actual taxable amount received (which may lead in a decrease of the net income).
Further to this subject, we hereby inform you that, on January 1, 2023, also the tax scales have been indexed. This indexation takes place annually, but due to high inflation, the indexation may lead to a larger difference in the Belgian withholding tax compared to previous years.
Birth leave
As from 1 January 2023, employees are entitled to 20 days birth leave (instead of 15 days).
Following persons are entitled to these 20 days birth leave:
- The father of the child (legally established parentage required).
If no legally established parentage of the father:
- the co-mother (= homosexual partner of the mother);
- the cohabiting partner of a heterosexual couple in respect of whom the child's parentage has not been established.
For the first three days of birth leave, the employee will receive his/her normal salary at the employer's expense.
From the fourth day, the employee will receive a benefit from the health insurance fund. This amounts to 82% of the (capped) salary.
Overview public holidays 2023
Below is an overview of the Belgian public holidays for 2023:
New Year's Day | Sunday, January 1st, 2023 |
Easter Monday | Monday, April 10th, 2023 |
Labour Day | Monday, May 1st 2023 |
Ascension Day | Thursday, May 18th, 2023 |
Whit Monday | Monday, May 29th 2023 |
Belgian National Holiday | Friday, July 21st, 2023 |
Assumption Day | Tuesday, August 15th 2023 |
All Saints’ Day | Wednesday, November 1st 2023 |
Armistice | Saturday, November 11th 2023 |
Christmas | Monday, December 25th 2023 |
The employer must pay the normal salary for these days.
When a public holiday falls on a Sunday on another day which is normally a non-working day, it must be replaced by a replacement day on a normal working day.
Different types of vacation
Generally, Belgian law provides that full-time employees are entitled to 20 legal vacation days each year.
Each employee subject to the Belgian social security regime builds up vacation rights for these days during the 'holiday service year' (2022). Only in the following calendar year, the so-called 'holiday year' (2023), the employee may take his/her leave days. Whether you get the full amount or only part of it depends on the number of days you worked in the previous year.
Certain sectors also work with working time reduction days: e.g. an employee working 40 hours in a sector where the 38-hour week is in force, saves two extra hours of leave every week worked.
On an annual basis, the employee is then entitled to 12 extra working time reduction days.
The big difference between legal vacation days and working time reduction days is that the latter are calculated based on the performance in the current year of service (2023), while the legal vacation days are calculated based on the holiday service year (2022).
In addition, an employer may decide to grant his staff additional (extra-legal) vacation days on top of the legal vacation. The rules to grant these are entirely up to the employer. These holidays are often granted for unofficial holidays (such as second Christmas or bridging days).
The main advantage of these extra-legal vacation days is that the employer can decide whether the employee can carry these holidays over to the following year or whether this is limited to a certain period. This carry-over is not possible for the 20 legal vacation days and the working time reduction days.
If your payroll is being processed by Mazars, we are setting up the vacation counters for 2023. If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact one of our payroll consultants.
Don’t miss the other deadlines!
Belgian tax form 281.10/20 (2022)
28 February 2023
Belgian social security contributions
31st January Balance Q4/2022 (October – December)
5th February 1st advance of Q1/2023
5th March 2nd advance of Q1/2023
5th April 3rd advance of Q1/2023
30 April Balance Q1/2023 (January – March)
Wage withholding tax
15th February January 2023
15th March February 2023
15th April March 2023
12th May April 2023
If you wish to receive more information or assistance on the topics above, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
