Social contributions and pension when self-⁠employed: what you pay and build up

As an employee, you rarely think about your social contributions. Social security (RSZ/ONSS) takes 13.07% of your gross salary, your employer pays around another 25% on top and that’s that. When you go self-⁠employed, that changes. You join a social insurance fund, and every quarter you get a bill. It’s one of the first costs you really feel.

So here I set out what you pay, what you get back for it and what you need to think about yourself. Especially when it comes to your pension, because that’s where the biggest difference with your life as an employee lies.

What you pay

As the company director of your BV (private limited company), you’re self-⁠employed as your main occupation. Your social contributions depend on your income: your salary and your benefits in kind, minus your professional expenses and the contributions themselves. In 2026 you pay:

• 20.5% on your income up to €75,024.54,
• 14.16% on the part between €75,024.54 and €110,562.42,
• nothing on what you earn above that.

On top of that come the management fees of your social insurance fund, a few per cent. You pay per quarter, at least €890.42 and at most €5,103.05, excluding those fees.

For Lotte, the recruiter from How much does an independent recruiter earn?, that comes to around €8,890 a year on a salary of €50,000. You deduct your social contributions from your income, in the year you pay them.

Your first years: watch out for the adjustment

This is where a lot of people starting out get caught out. Your fund only knows your real income once the tax authorities pass it on, and that takes a while. That’s why you first pay provisional contributions, and the adjustment based on your real income follows two years later.

When you’re starting out, that provisional contribution is the minimum, €890.42 a quarter, unless you choose to pay more. If you earn €50,000, like Lotte, your real contributions are more than double that. You pay the difference later in one go, for every year you paid too little. For Lotte that’s a good €5,000 a year, and from her third year that adjustment comes on top of that year’s contributions.

It keeps working that way afterwards too: your provisional contributions are based on your income from three years earlier, and the adjustment follows two years later. So if your income grows, there’s always something extra to pay.

The solution is simple. Have your accountant estimate your income, and pay provisional contributions on that income from the start. Your fund is happy to allow it. Then you won’t get a surprise, and you deduct them straight away.

What you get for it

Your social contributions don’t vanish into thin air. You build up rights with them:

• Your pension. Every year as a self-⁠employed person counts towards your statutory pension. More on that below.
• Your health insurance. Your visits to the doctor, your medication and a hospital stay are reimbursed, just like for an employee.
• A benefit if you fall ill. A fixed amount per day, regardless of what you earned. If you’re ill for more than seven days, you get it from the first day. But it’s far less than your income: read more in What insurance do you need when you’re self-⁠employed?
• Maternity leave, if you have a baby.
• The bridging right, a temporary income if you have to close down your business, for example after a bankruptcy.

What you don’t get is unemployment benefit. If you stop being self-⁠employed, you can’t fall back on it, except in the cases covered by the bridging right.

Your statutory pension

Your statutory pension as a self-⁠employed person is calculated like this: for a full career of 45 years, you get 60% of your average income. If your partner has no pension of their own, or only a small one, it’s 75%, at the household rate.

For a long time, a self-⁠employed person got a good deal less pension than an employee on the same income. Up to and including 2020, your self-⁠employed income only counted for around 69%. Since 2021, it has counted in full.

Even so, as a self-⁠employed person you usually build up less than as an employee. For an employee, it’s their gross salary that counts. For a self-⁠employed person, it’s their income after social contributions and costs, and with the same package that’s lower. What’s more, above a ceiling your income no longer counts.

You can see how much pension you’ve already built up on mypension.be. It also shows your supplementary pensions, such as the group insurance from your previous employer.

Topping up your pension: VAPZ and IPT

That’s why most self-⁠employed people top up their pension themselves. As a company director, you have two ways to do it, and they go together perfectly.

The VAPZ

For most people, the supplementary pension for the self-⁠employed (VAPZ) is the first step. You pay in a premium every year and deduct it from your income as a social contribution. That way you pay less personal income tax and fewer social contributions. That benefit can add up to around 60% of your premium, and you pay no tax on the premium itself.

In 2026 you can pay in up to 8.17% of your income, with a maximum of €4,086.34. With a social VAPZ, it’s 9.40%, with a maximum of €4,701.54. Part of your premium then goes towards extra protection, for example if you become unable to work. A reform to raise those limits is ready, but it hasn’t been voted through yet.

When you retire, you pay social contributions of at most 5.55% combined on the capital, and personal income tax through a notional annuity: part of your capital counts towards your income for a number of years. How much that comes to depends on what you earn as a pensioner.

The IPT

If you want to put more aside, you add an individual pension commitment (IPT). It runs through your BV: your BV pays the premiums and deducts them as a cost. You pay 4.4% tax on every premium. 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% combined.

How much you can pay in depends on your salary. Your statutory pension, your VAPZ and your IPT together can’t be more than 80% of your last normal gross salary. So if you pay yourself a low salary, you also have little room for an IPT. You can read how to combine your salary and your dividend smartly in Director’s pay or dividend.

Side by side

On top of that, like everyone else, you can save into a pension savings plan: up to €1,050 a year with a 30% tax reduction, or up to €1,350 with 25%.

And your current group insurance?

If you have group insurance as an employee, what you’ve built up stays yours. It stays with your old employer’s insurer until you retire, only no new premiums are added. When we run the numbers, your BV carries on paying the same premium into an IPT, so your pension build-⁠up doesn’t stall.

Let’s not be naive about it

Your social contributions are a hefty cost, and what you get for them is less than what an employee gets. No unemployment benefit, a sickness benefit that’s only a fraction of your income and a statutory pension that won’t let most self-⁠employed people keep up their standard of living.

That’s no reason to stay an employee. With what you keep extra as a self-⁠employed person, you can comfortably cover it yourself: with a VAPZ, an IPT and guaranteed income insurance. But you do have to do it. When you were an employee, your employer arranged it for you; now you do it yourself.

Frequently asked questions

When do you pay your social contributions?

Every quarter, to your social insurance fund. You get a payment request each time. Pay on time, because if you’re late, you pay a surcharge.

Can you deduct your social contributions?

Yes, from your income, in the year you pay them. That also applies to the adjustment for previous years.

How do you know how much pension you’ve already built up?

On mypension.be, with your eID or itsme. You can see your statutory pension and your supplementary pensions there, such as group insurance or a VAPZ.

Do you need both a VAPZ and an IPT?

Neither is compulsory. Most self-⁠employed people start with a VAPZ, because you deduct the premium yourself and pay no tax on it. If you want to put more aside, you add an IPT, through your BV.

This is general information, not personal advice. Discuss your situation with your accountant or your social insurance fund.

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

What would you keep as a self-⁠employed person, with your package and pension included? Work it out in the calculator, or have a chat with me about it via Join us.

Sources

• Social contributions 2026, rates, minimum and maximum: FPS Social Security, social contributions 2026 (in Dutch).
• Provisional contributions and the adjustment when you’re starting out: Xerius (in Dutch).
• How your pension as a self-⁠employed person is calculated: Securex (in Dutch). Your full income has counted since 2021: Forum for the Future (in Dutch).
• VAPZ, maximum premiums 2026: Xerius (in Dutch). Tax treatment of the VAPZ: Baker Tilly (in Dutch). The planned reform: Partena Professional (in Dutch).
• Tax on an IPT when you retire: KBC (in Dutch).
• Pension savings in 2026: PV, 2026 tax limits (in Dutch).
• Keeping track of your pension: mypension.be.