Director’s pay or dividend: how to get money out of your BV

Your first fees come in, and there’s more in the account of your BV (private limited company) than you’ve ever seen in your own. Then comes the question: how do I get that money to me, as director’s pay or as a dividend? Because what’s in your BV’s account belongs to your BV, not to you. To get it into your own account, you need a route, and each route is taxed differently.

One thing first: never just help yourself to money from your BV’s account. Then it’s neither salary nor dividend, but a loan from your BV to you. You’re taxed on a benefit in kind for that, and your accountant gets to put it right afterwards.

There are three main routes: your salary, dividends and the liquidation reserve. On top of that, your BV can pay a few costs for you directly. No single route is the best. The trick is to combine them smartly.

Route 1: your director’s pay

As the director of your BV, you count as a company director, and your BV pays you a salary. Officially it’s called remuneration; many people say management fee. Your BV deducts it as a cost, and you pay social contributions as a self-⁠employed person and personal income tax on it.

You need a salary for three reasons:

• For the low corporate tax rate. As a small company, your BV pays 20% on its first €100,000 of profit instead of 25%. The condition: it pays you at least €51,000 a year (in 2026), including your benefits in kind. In the first four financial years of a new BV, that condition doesn’t apply yet.
• To live on. Your salary comes in every month. You usually pay out a dividend once a year, after your annual accounts.
• For your pension. Your statutory pension as a self-⁠employed person depends on the income you pay social contributions on. And how much your BV can save for your pension also depends on your salary. More on that below.

But a salary soon gets expensive. Above €51,000, you keep around €40 to €44 of every extra €100 in salary. The rest goes to social contributions and personal income tax, which goes up to 50%, plus municipal tax. So take what you need as salary, and no more.

Route 2: dividend

What your BV has left after your salary and its costs is profit. It pays corporate tax on that, and it can pay out what’s left to you as a dividend. The state takes withholding tax off that: normally 30%.

With VVPR-⁠bis, it’s 18%. You get that favourable scheme if you set up your BV with capital in cash. You can read the conditions in How much does an independent recruiter earn?

Let’s do the maths. On €100 of profit, your BV pays €20 in corporate tax. Of the €80 that’s left, 18% goes to the state, and you keep €65.60. That’s a good deal more than the €40 to €44 from extra salary.

You don’t get the low rate straight away, though. It applies from the third financial year after the year in which you contributed your capital. Anything you pay out earlier is taxed at 30%. Anyone who contributed capital before 2026 still had an intermediate rate of 20% in the second year, but it has been abolished for new BVs.

The good news: what counts is when you pay out the dividend, not when you made the profit. Profit you leave in your BV in your first years can still be paid out later at 18%.

Before your BV pays out a dividend, it runs two tests. After the payout, its equity must stay positive, and it must be able to pay its debts over the next twelve months. You can read more about that in Setting up a BV as a recruiter.

Route 3: the liquidation reserve

The liquidation reserve is less well known, but it’s very useful if you look further ahead. It works like this: you set aside part of the profit after corporate tax in a reserve, and you pay an extra 10% on it straight away. After that, it can go three ways:

• You pay out the reserve after three years. Then you pay 9.8% withholding tax. Together with the 10% at the start, that comes to the same as with VVPR-⁠bis.
• You leave it until you close your BV. Then you pay nothing more. All in all, that’s around 9% instead of 18%.
• You need it sooner after all. Then you pay 30%, on top of the 10%. That’s the most expensive route of all.

The liquidation reserve is for small companies, and each reserve has its own clock: what you set aside this year, you can pay out in three years. These rates apply to reserves from financial years ending on or after 31 December 2025.

Two things to watch out for. You pay that 10% straight away, so your BV needs to have the money. And since July 2026, there’s an anti-⁠abuse rule: if you become a director of a similar company within three years of closing your BV, you lose the benefit.

Who is it for? For money you won’t need in the coming years, as a piggy bank in your BV for later. And for anyone who isn’t entitled to VVPR-⁠bis, for example because they set up their BV with a contribution in kind.

Two more ways: your expenses and your pension

Not everything has to go through salary or dividend. Your BV can also pay some costs for you directly:

• An expense allowance. Your BV pays you back for the costs you incur for it, such as your home office, internet and travel. That allowance is tax-⁠free and your BV deducts it, as long as it matches costs you actually incur. In our calculation, it’s €350 a month. Your accountant knows which flat rates the tax authorities accept.
• A pension in your BV. Through an individual pension commitment (IPT), your BV saves for your pension. It deducts the premiums and pays 4.4% tax on them. If you take the capital at your statutory pension age, you pay around 10% tax, plus municipal tax and social contributions of at most 5.55% in total. How much you can pay in depends on your salary: your statutory and supplementary pension together can’t be more than 80% of your last normal gross salary. One more reason to pay yourself a decent salary.

Your BV also pays for your car, your phone and your hospitalisation insurance, just like your employer does today. You can read how that works in How much does an independent recruiter earn?

Side by side

Put the routes side by side and you see why your choice matters. This is what you keep from €100 of profit in a small BV that pays 20% corporate tax:

Everything has already been taken off: for salary, your social contributions and personal income tax; for dividend and the liquidation reserve, your BV’s corporate tax as well.

How to combine them

So what does a smart mix look like? For most independent recruiters, it comes down to this:

1. A salary that’s enough, and no more. Enough for the low corporate tax rate and to live on every month. In 2026, that’s €51,000 a year, including your benefits in kind.
2. Your package and expenses through your BV. Your car, your phone, your hospitalisation insurance, your pension and your expense allowance, paid before tax.
3. The rest as dividend. At 18%, as soon as VVPR-⁠bis applies.
4. What you don’t need, you leave where it is. In your BV, or in a liquidation reserve if you won’t need it until you stop.

You can see what that means in euros with Lotte, the recruiter from How much does an independent recruiter earn? She bills €240,000 a year. Her BV pays her €50,000 in salary (with the benefit of her car and phone, she’s above €51,000), her package and an expense allowance, and she pays out the rest as dividend at 18%. That way she keeps €78,570 a year.

What if she did it differently?

• Everything as salary: she would keep around €61,640, €16,920 less a year.
• €70,000 salary instead of €50,000: around €4,640 less a year.
• Her dividend at 30% instead of 18%: around €6,740 less a year.

That last one is exactly what happens in your first years, before VVPR-⁠bis applies.

Your first years

In your first years, you still pay 30% on dividends. That’s why many new independents only pay out what they need at that point and leave the rest in their BV. That profit isn’t lost: as soon as VVPR-⁠bis applies, they pay it out at 18%. For every €100 of dividend you leave in this way, you gain €12.

In those first four financial years, you also don’t need to reach the minimum director’s pay of €51,000 for the 20% rate. A lower salary can make a difference then, but you also build up less pension, and you have to live on it every month. Discuss it with your accountant.

Let’s not be naive about it

It’s tempting to take as much as possible out of your BV as dividend and keep your salary as low as possible. But there are a few things you’ll want to know before you do:

• Your pension. A modest salary builds a modest statutory pension. Top it up, for example with an IPT.
• A mortgage. Your bank looks at your income over the past few years. A low salary with a lot of dividend sometimes makes that conversation harder.
• The rules change. In 2026, VVPR-⁠bis went from 15% to 18%, and the liquidation reserve from 6.5% to 9.8%. What you leave in your BV today, you’ll pay out later under the rules that apply then.
• Every situation is different. Your billing, your family, your plans: have your accountant check your mix every year.

That doesn’t make a smart mix any less valuable. But it is something to look at again every year.

Frequently asked questions

Is director’s pay the same as a salary?

In practice, yes. What your BV pays you for your work as a company director is officially called remuneration. Many people say management fee, or just salary.

How often can I pay out a dividend?

A dividend isn’t a monthly salary. You usually pay it out once a year, after your annual accounts, and each time after the two tests. So for your income every month, you need your salary.

Which is better: VVPR-⁠bis or a liquidation reserve?

After three years, you pay 18% in total with either. If you’re entitled to VVPR-⁠bis, it’s the simplest route for what you pay out in the coming years. The liquidation reserve pays off for money you leave until you close your BV, and for anyone who isn’t entitled to VVPR-⁠bis. You can also combine them.

This is general information, not personal tax advice. Always run your situation past your accountant.

You’ll find all the steps at a glance in our guide Becoming an independent recruiter in Belgium.

What would you keep? Work it out in the calculator, or have a chat with me about it via Join us.

Sources

• Minimum director’s pay for 2026: Attentia (in Dutch).
• VVPR-⁠bis to 18% and the liquidation reserve to 9.8%, from the programme law published in the Belgian Official Gazette of 1 June 2026: KPMG.
• The intermediate 20% rate abolished for contributions from 2026: Wolters Kluwer (in Dutch).
• VVPR-⁠bis also on profit from previous financial years: Practicali (in Dutch).
• The liquidation reserve, all the rates at a glance: Jubel (in Dutch).
• Tax on an IPT when you retire: KBC (in Dutch).

Calculated with the model behind our calculator. Amounts rounded.