Login Portal
Offices
Contact
Search:
NL
FR
DE
EN
HOME
Private Individual
Starter
Before starting
Start-up
Secondary or primary occupation?
Sole proprietor or company?
Starting a sole proprietor business
Starting a company
Starting in a profession
Starting with personnel
Accounting and taxes
Formalities?
Securex Company Desk
Social status
Growth
My income
I want to be self-employed. What are the criteria?
Self-employed
Employer
Payroll Expert
Welfare Prevention Expert
Human Capital Expert
Public Sector
Securex partner
Securex Group
print
print
Share
Starter > Start-up > Secondary or primary occupation?

Secondary or primary occupation?

Learn here about the differences between being self-employed in a secondary or a primary occupation. You can also combine, for example employee and self-employed.

You can be self-employed in a primary or secondary occupation:

  • I want to work full-time as a self-employed person
    • Then your self-employed activity is a primary occupation. The social status of the self-employed person applies to you.
  • I want to work part-time as a self-employed person
    • Are you working at least half-time as a salaried person, or are you an educator with a timetable of at least 6/10, or are you a civil servant?
  • I would like to be self-employed within a company.
    • The law regards any working partner or mandatory as a self-employed person. Even if you don’t earn anything in your capacity as a mandatory, the social status of the self-employed person still applies to you.
    • Exceptions: (retired), unpaid mandatories are not subject to the self-employed status if they can prove this in fact and in law.
    • Your company must also register with a social security fund and pay an annual contribution. Certain businesses can be exempt for the first 3 years of their existence from this annual contribution. The 3 criteria that must be fulfilled are:
      • The company is a ‘partnership’.
      • The company is registered with the Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen (KBO) as a trading or craft company.
      • The business owner(s) as well as the majority of working partners (non-business owners) have not been subject to the social status of self-employed persons for more than three years in the course of the ten years preceding the setting up of the company.
  • I would like to help a self-employed person
    • If you are helping or regularly standing in for a self-employed person, without having signed an employment contract, then the social status of the self-employed person applies to you, excluding the insolvency insurance.
    • Exceptions: you are no more than 19 years old this year, or you help less than ninety days a year, or you are a student and receive child benefit. In this case you are not a self-employed helper.
  • I help out my self-employed partner
    • If you are married or legally cohabit with your partner, then you are subject to the social status of the self-employed, as long as you help out in your partner’s business, and enjoy no protection under social security due to another activity.
    • Exceptions: you help out on fewer than ninety days per year. In this case, you must fill in and sign a declaration, true and correct to the best of your knowledge, and send it to your partner’s social security fund. If your partner is the business owner, or you were born before 1956, you are not subject to the social status of the self-employed. Assisting partners born before 1956 are subject to the so-called mini-status. This only guarantees insurance against labour incapacity.
  • I am retired and would like to continue working as a self-employed person
    • No problem. By keeping your income below the legally stipulated limit, you can combine a (lower) pension payment with your own income.
    • You can find more information on income limits here.

Contact
I would like an appointment
I have a question
FAQ