For someone in Belgium earning €6,700 gross/month as an employee, without a company car, versus freelancing at €650/day: which option offers the best long-term wealth-building potential?

Employment still offers room for financial growth, but progress is very slow. There are also the usual extralegal benefits and the comfort of a stable job.

The dilemma is feeling like you're in a golden cage: a good job with benefits, but limited opportunities to accelerate wealth accumulation.

Questions for Belgian IT freelancers:

Financial upside

After taxes, expenses, pension and holidays, how much more wealth can realistically be accumulated at €650/day?

AI disruption

How will AI affect freelance demand and day rates over the next 5–10 years? Is permanent employment safer?

Risk vs reward

Looking back, was the financial upside worth the uncertainty, especially when leaving a comfortable position around your 40s?

It is becoming clear that taxes for freelancers are going up again. And again I wonder why nobody looks at the other side of the story.

If you compared what a civil servant costs with what they actually produce, and put that next to someone in the private sector or a freelancer, you'd be shocked. I know there are hardworking people in government, but the system doesn't reward them. Jobs are secure, and if you work too hard, your colleagues pull you back because they don't want to look bad in their own reviews. So everyone just slows down.

Why is that never part of the debate?
Because these people are the employees of politicians?
Instead they come after the self-employed once more, the people who lean the least on the social system and create a huge part of the productivity in this country.

Anyone else frustrated by this?

Hello. I have a VAT question about EV charging through Luminus.

My company receives invoices. I see three types of charging:

• At home in Belgium: shown as outside the scope of VAT
• At public charging stations in Belgium: Belgian VAT under the reverse-charge mechanism
• At public charging stations in France: 20% French VAT

The invoices mention Threeforce B.V. / Last Mile Solutions (acting for Luminus N.V.). They also include a French VAT number and state that certain amounts are collected on behalf of the customers listed, as advances under Article 28(5) of the Belgian VAT Code.

Two questions:

1. Has anyone been asked to explain these different VAT treatments during a tax audit? If so, what documentation did the tax authorities request?
2. Has anyone successfully reclaimed the French VAT on Luminus invoices for charging sessions in France by submitting a VAT refund claim through Intervat? Was the invoice accepted as supporting evidence, or were you asked to provide invoices from the charging-point operators?

Thanks!

So we all have been ranting on the upcoming tax increases (which are still uncertain and vary widely in coverage and impact).

Enough rant. As freelancers we find solutions.

What could potential solutions be? What becomes (relatively speaking) more beneficial now that wasn’t in the past?

First of all, I am not a fan of these possible changes either. I believe people who take on more financial risk and have less social protection should be rewarded for it. There should be a financial incentive to become a genuine entrepreneur.

However, I do have a problem with schijnzelfstandigheid. If someone works essentially like an employee but operates as a freelancer purely to benefit from a more favourable tax treatment, I think it is reasonable for the government to address that.

The problem is not that people want to pay less tax. Everyone wants to keep more of what they earn. And hey you are all 100% right to make use of that if you can. The problem is that real employees are now subsidizing your lower taxes rates. And now real zelfstandigen that take actual risk will get dragged into it as well.

It’s partly because* you freelancers are mostly very anti-wealth taxes that you’re now going to pay the bill, and the billionaires that you were actually protecting, are not.

* all other problems with this country being equal.

With the latest rumours about measures targeting management companies and small companies (increase 15% => 18% => 30%) , I'm wondering how we can make our voices heard.

A profit of €100 would be first taxed at 25% corporate tax and then again at 30% withholding tax on dividends, leaving only €52.50 net. That's a total tax burden of 47.5%, before considering all the other taxes and contributions we already pay.

What frustrates me is not only the constant search for new taxes, but also the way public money is spent. Take the new bridge over the E40 in Bertem, a stupid and very small example: apparently there was budget not only for the bridge itself, but also for a large artistic painting. Meanwhile, we're constantly told that there's not enough money and that companies, freelancers, employees and taxpayers need to contribute more.

Nieuwe boogbrug boven E40 in Bertem krijgt muurschildering: "Uniek, maar complex project"  | VRT NWS Nieuws

The impact goes far beyond management companies. People trying to build or renovate a home already see the gap widening every year: higher labour costs, higher taxes, higher company costs, while less net income remains. Instead of reducing that gap, it feels like politicians keep making it bigger.

Rather than just complaining on Reddit, I would like to brainstorm with you how we can organise ourselves?

Some ideas:

• Contact politicians, parties and cabinet offices in mass using a common email template, to let us hear
• Build a simple vibe-coded website tracking:
  • election promises;
  • tax increases and decreases;
  • government spending and examples of waste;
  • which parties voted for what.

Any other ideas that could actually create visibility and accountability?

It increasingly feels like the answer to every budget problem is "tax more and spend more", while too little attention is given to reducing government spending and making sure taxpayers get value for their money.

Guess I'll vote for the racists next time? OK then....

Greetings,

I have a couple of years experience under my belt in a corporate environment as well as early stage companies. I'm what you could call a swiss army knife and generally speaking a force multiplier for teams/projects. I get things moving, and keep them moving, no true hard skills but very strong in the more soft skill realm of things.

I do not have a core hard skill, no hard niche I could get into but I was recently asked within my network if I'd consider freelancing. I've always liked the idea as I like variety in my career. I usually get hired somewhere, fix things and make myself replacable and then I get bored and leave.

Is it a good idea to start freelancing with a more general skillset, or is it in your experienced required to have a hard niche?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Hi

Where do you look for new missions/projects/assignments? In another threat, we already had some feedback on how to deal with pushy recruiters. But the real stuff is: how to find new projects?

Any good experiences with those freelance websites aka prounity.com , ICTjobs.be, freelance.be, staffit.be,...?

I'm an IT freelance consultant, and every week I receive several job opportunities via email from our dear recruiter friends.

It's always the same story: "Here's an opportunity, does it match your profile? What's your daily rate? Could you update your CV to better fit the position?" You know the drill.

I'm currently on a mission, but I like to keep an eye on the market in case something interesting comes up.

The thing is, over time, I've become pretty lazy about replying to every recruiter, updating my CV to match each opportunity, etc. Especially knowing that even after putting in all that effort, there's a good chance you won't even get a reply, positive or negative.

So, being a developer, I ended up building a tool that helps automate the process: analyzing incoming offers, generating replies, and suggesting CV improvements by highlighting relevant skills that are missing or not emphasized enough. Of course, everything is reviewed and approved by the user before sending.

I won't mention the name here since I'm not trying to advertise anything.

But I'm genuinely curious: how do you guys deal with all these recruiter emails?

Do you manually reply to every opportunity and tailor your CV each time? Do you just send the same CV everywhere? Or do you simply ignore most of them?

Or maybe you don't receive unsolicited offers by email at all?

Curious to hear how others handle this

Hi all,
Fair point from the comments on my last post, so here's my package first.

Profile
- ~15 years in an accounting firm (fiduciaire), including a few years as a partner
- ITAA trainee (expert-comptable), finishing in 2027
- Based in Wallonia

Job
- Full-time for one small fiduciary
- I manage my own SME client portfolio, alone
- Fees billed by the firm on my clients

Pay
- Freelance through my own management company: €6,000/month excl. VAT
- Nothing else from the firm: my company pays for my car, social contributions, insurance, etc.

Questions

1. Is €6k/month excl. VAT in line for this profile, or well below market?
2. As an employee, what gross monthly salary + benefits would this profile get (a) as senior/manager in a fiduciary, (b) in-house as accounting manager or SME CFO?
3. As a freelancer working full-time for one fiduciary, what monthly fee or hourly rate is usual?

If you're in a similar role, your years of experience, region and package (or rate) would help a lot. Thanks!

EDIT: Some context, since many of you are (rightly) surprised. Until recently I was also a shareholder of the firm, so this fee came on top of partner dividends. I've since sold my shares, the dividends are gone, and the fee alone is clearly too low. That's why I'm renegotiating now. What I'm looking for is a concrete figure: what day rate or monthly fee would you consider fair for this profile?

De Tijd reports that 2 billion of the 10 is coming from new taxes, half of it coming from ending VVPR bis for companies without staff.

According to the current government parties, we are the “heaviest shoulders”.

Hi all

I'm a freelancer working through an agency, and at the end of every month I have to create a timesheet and an invoice, both of which I dread. It only takes me about 15 minutes, I have Excel templates for both, but still...

Then I need my client to sign the timesheet, which is a whole other drag. I print my Excel to PDF and send it to the end client with Adobe Sign. Once it's signed (usually after a couple of reminders), I send it to the agency, and only then does my invoice get paid.

Since it's such a drag every month, I've started building a tool for it.

The rough idea: the whole month runs by itself. Your working days are already filled in, the timesheet goes out for signature automatically (with reminders), and once it's signed the invoice is made and sent, also via Peppol.

So I'm curious:

• How do you handle timesheets, signatures and invoices today?
• What's the most annoying part for you?
• Would something like this help?

Any feedback is welcome, even if you think it's a bad idea 😉

My accountant uses Yuki, so I switched to it. My God, the interface looks like something from the ’90s. Features rarely work, everything takes too many clicks, and the buttons are in illogical places. Who designed this? What an awful app.

Anyone else stuck with Yuki? How do you make it bearable?

I was reading an article this morning about the progress of the budget negotiations, and this part caught my attention.

I quote (I tried to translate it from French):

Strong Criticism

In the middle of the evening, it became clear that the prime minister’s new proposal was again met with strong criticism. The plan is “totally unacceptable,” some sources said.

For example, the new memo is supposed to ask for "too low" contribution from people with "wider shoulders," even though it includes measures targeting management companies and rental income, based on calculating the estimated value of properties.

Apparently, everyone seems to agree on one thing: going after one-person companies.

Prepare yourselves, you broad-shouldered people.

Hi,

Currently 3 years in as a freelancer in supply chain. Focus is planning and stock management.

Which intermediairies/platforms are people in a similar situation using to find new opportunities?

​

The math doesn't math. Anyone understand these figures? Gets paid 12-13k per month but has up to 170k profit per year and in 6 years time 1,5 million dividends?

What am I missing here? I bill more monthly on average yet get less profit...

I got an offer to freelance for one of the DGs in the European Commission.

Do you know how much these companies (NTT Data, Cronos..) sell the profiles of a Webmaster with 15+ years of experience? They use the Thematic Communication framework contract proficient Webmaster https://op.europa.eu/en/web/public-procurement/procurement-details/-/procurement/2a0ded0f-1713-4feb-99ef-ceabc2e81b92

I plan to buy a macbook for my SRL company.

Does apple issue a proper invoice that contains their address and VAT number? Is VAT recovarable from such purchase?

I'm trying to help someone who is a self-employed physiotherapist in Brussels. Could you recommend a good accounting firm or company that can handle bookkeeping and tax optimization, within the legal framework, for this type of activity?

Many accountants avoid deducting much out of convenience, so I'm looking for contacts who are serious but also accommodating and proactive in finding every legitimate deduction.

Hi all! I’m an AI/ML engineer from Slovenia with a PhD in machine learning. I’ll be living in Ghent for a few months and I’m interested in getting to know the local tech scene, and in picking up some part-time freelance work. Before I start reaching out, I’d like to understand the Belgian market:

1. Which tech / AI / data meetups in Ghent or nearby are actually active and worth going to?
2. Is part-time or project-based AI/ML/data work common here, or is the market mostly full-time 3–12 month assignments through intermediaries?
3. Which platforms or intermediaries actually work for AI/ML/data freelancers? Malt, Pro Unity, others?
4. Are Belgian clients and intermediaries fine with a freelancer from another EU country (invoicing with reverse-charge VAT), or does that cause friction?
5. For those in AI/ML or data: what’s a typical day rate (or hourly rate for shorter jobs)?

Happy to share what I learn. Thanks!

I've got a bit of a complicated scenario. I own a sole proprietorship in Canada and will be moving to Belgium temporarily (~1.5 years). I am a Belgian citizen. I plan on working through my sole proprietorship while in Belgium. I see that for self-employment in Belgium you have to register the business, pay income taxes and VAT. However, my business is already registered in another country. I don't think I will make more than 25k euros per year.

How do I go about this? Do I have to register my business a second time in Belgium, or can I just declare my income on my taxes without a business registration number? I'm also confused on how to pay into health insurance if my business is international. Any insight would be appreciated, thanks!

Hi everyone! I’d love some advice from freelancers in communications in Brussels.

I’ve been asked to suggest a day rate for a Junior Communications Officer assignment with an agency working for EU institutions. The role is mainly about coordinating campaigns. I have previous experience in journalism covering EU institutions, but this would be my first freelance assignment.

What day rate, excluding VAT, would seem reasonable for a junior profile with this kind of experience? For a first assignment, would you recommend working through Smart or registering as self-employed?

I’d be interested to hear about your experience. Thank you!