Sharing economy and association work in Belgium
Can you earn on the side in Belgium through the sharing economy (deeleconomie / économie collaborative) or with association work (verenigingswerk / travail associatif) without the status of self-employed? Yes, lightly taxed: according to the tax authority, the two regimes share one ceiling of €7,890 gross for 2026 income, and under it you pay about 10%. The rules follow, for 2025 too.
Can you earn on the side without becoming self-employed, and does tax-free extra income still exist?
Yes, through the sharing economy, with association work or with an extra job as an employee, but the tax-free extra earnings of 2018 no longer exist: the sharing economy and association work are taxed, if lightly.
- The sharing economy: services to other private persons, through a platform that the FOD Financiën / SPF Finances (the federal tax administration) has approved. How you earn on the side in the sharing economy is in the next section.
- Association work: paid work for an association or a public body in sport or the socio-cultural sector, with an employment contract and without social security contributions. That comes after.
- An extra job as an employee, such as a flexi-job (an extra job as an employee, with tax and social advantages). It is covered under earning on the side from home.
On its own site about association work, the RSZ / ONSS (the national social security office) itself names the other solutions: flexi-jobs, volunteering and the sharing economy. If, outside those routes, you carry out an activity regularly and for profit, you are self-employed. According to the RSVZ, a separate, occasional activity does not make you so. When you need the status after all is in the last section.
The tax-free extra earnings the government announced in the Chamber on 26 October 2017, up to €500 a month and at most €6,000 a year, no longer exist. The Constitutional Court annulled the law of 18 July 2018 with its judgment no. 53/2020 of 23 April 2020, as DOC 55 2094/001 records. Pages that still describe that scheme are out of date.
The framework for association work from that law lapsed on 31 December 2020, and a new law replaced it, according to the same DOC 55 2094/001. For the sharing economy, the current tax scheme applies, according to the FOD Financiën, to income paid or received from 1 January 2021. Both regimes are therefore taxed, if lightly.
This article belongs to the first steps: every article on them is under Getting started.
What is the sharing economy, and when do you fall under it?
For the tax authority, the sharing economy means services that private persons provide to each other, outside the exercise of a professional activity, through approved online platforms. The services may only be provided to another private person through an approved electronic platform. You conclude the agreement through the platform, and you are paid only by or through the platform, as the explanatory notes to part 2, tax year 2026 explain.
The approval is the platform’s: the FOD Financiën approves it, and you, as a private person, apply for nothing yourself. The approved platforms of the sharing economy are in the list the FOD links from its page on the sharing economy. Check there that your platform is on it before you start.
Not covered by the sharing economy:
- a service to a business, or to a client acting in the course of their professional activity;
- a service you agree or have paid outside the platform, or through a platform without approval;
- renting out a flat, a room or furniture, and subletting: that income is taxed in its own boxes;
- services closely linked to your own activity as self-employed, or to that of the company you are a director of. A self-employed gardener who also works through an approved platform has professional income for both activities.
For the sharing economy you do not have to join a social insurance fund (sociaal verzekeringsfonds / caisse d’assurances sociales). The RSVZ / INASTI (the national institute for the self-employed’s social security) lists among those who need not join: “services you provide for payment outside the professional framework through the online platform approved by the FOD Financiën, whose income is taxed under the special rules of the sharing economy”.
Meal delivery couriers: on 16 June 2026 the Minister of Finance confirmed in the Chamber’s Finance and Budget Committee that the tax rulings for the meal delivery platforms are being abolished. According to him, the tax situation of the platforms and the couriers must be assessed case by case, in the light of how social case law develops.
What is association work, and who may do it?
Association work is an employment scheme: a non-profit association or a public body in the sports sector or the socio-cultural sector takes you on for temporary activities. You pay no social security contributions on your pay, and the tax rate is favourable, says the RSZ.
It is not volunteering. According to the RSZ’s frequently asked questions, the organisation signs an employment contract with you, and employment law applies, the statutory pay scales included. Association work and volunteering for the same association can go together, but only for activities of an entirely different nature.
The activities are on a list. Examples the RSZ gives:
- coaches at a sports club, groundskeepers at a football club;
- supervisors at a playground scheme during the school holidays, or at a youth camp;
- marshals at a cycling race, referees, stewards or anti-doping chaperones at a sports competition;
- teachers at a circus school, conductors;
- people who help with the set-up, the ticket checks or the clean-up at a music festival, for at most 32 hours, spread over the day of the event and the 3 days before or after.
Musicians are not covered by association work.
The number of hours is capped, per year and per quarter:
| Period | Sports sector | Socio-cultural sector |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 450 hours | 300 hours |
| 1st, 2nd and 4th quarter (each) | 150 hours | 100 hours |
| 3rd quarter | 285 hours | 190 hours |
If you do activities in both sectors, a maximum of 450 hours a year applies to everything together: 150 hours in the 1st, 2nd and 4th quarter, and 285 hours in the 3rd. As a student you may do 190 hours of association work a year, alongside at most 650 hours of student work, and the quarterly caps apply then too, according to the RSZ’s frequently asked questions.
If you go over one of the limits, all the hours you worked for the employer where you exceeded the limit are converted into ordinary work. Social security contributions are then due on that pay. For tax, too, all your pay from association work then becomes professional income (see the ceiling in the next section).
Association work is not possible:
- for an employer you were bound to in the year before the start by an employment contract, a civil-service appointment or a contract for services, including through temporary agency work. If you worked there as a student, or have retired since, it is allowed;
- at the same time as professional work for the same organisation;
- with an unemployment benefit: “Probably not”, the RSZ answers, because combining pay and an unemployment benefit is in principle prohibited. The last section says which route there is instead;
- with a benefit for incapacity for work, unless the medical adviser of your health insurance fund (ziekenfonds / mutualité) agrees.
The organisation handles the declaration: it registers as an employer with the RSZ and files a Dimona in hours for you. You see your hours in the online service Verenigingswerk / Travail associatif, and there you create a certificate of the hours you still have available per sector, for your employer.
How much can you earn, how much tax do you pay, and what if you go over the ceiling?
The sharing economy and association work share one ceiling on your gross income: €7,700 for 2025 income and €7,890 for 2026 income. Under that ceiling it is miscellaneous income (diverse inkomsten / revenus divers), taxed at 20% after 50% flat-rate expenses, so about 10% of the gross amount. If you go over it, all the income can become professional income, taxed at the ordinary rates.
| Sharing economy | Association work | |
|---|---|---|
| Who pays you | an approved platform | an association or public body, with an employment contract |
| Ceiling, for both together | €7,700 (2025 income), €7,890 (2026 income) | the same ceiling |
| Tax | 50% flat-rate expenses, then 20% | 50% flat-rate expenses, then 20% |
| Withheld at source | yes, withholding tax by the platform | no, settled in the yearly assessment |
| Social security contributions | none, and no social insurance fund | none |
| Tax form | 281.29 | 281.27 |
| Maximum number of hours | — | 450 or 300 a year, plus per quarter; 190 for students |
| Above the limit | all income in principle professional income | all pay in principle professional income |
The ceiling
According to the FOD Financiën, income from the sharing economy may not exceed €7,700 for 2025 income (tax year 2026) and €7,890 for 2026 income (tax year 2027). That ceiling covers the sum of your income from the sharing economy and from association work. On the association work site you will still read €7,460: that is the 2024 amount, not a contradiction.
The ceiling applies to the gross amount. With a platform, that is what it paid you, plus everything it withheld, such as withholding tax and fees. You find it on your form 281.29, in box 6, according to the explanatory notes to part 2, tax year 2026.
The ceiling is indexed each year. €7,890 is the amount for your 2026 income; for 2027 the FOD Financiën will publish a new amount.
The tax and your return
Under the ceiling, your income from the sharing economy is miscellaneous income. It is first reduced by 50% flat-rate expenses and then taxed at a separate rate of 20%. In the FOD Financiën’s example, €2,000 of sharing-economy income results in €200 of tax. If it is more favourable to add that income to your other taxable income, they are taxed together.
According to DOC 55 2569/001, the same mechanism applies to association work: miscellaneous income, taxed at 20% after a flat-rate deduction of 50% for expenses. The RSZ writes that the tax is 10%: that is the same tax, calculated on the gross amount, because 20% of half is 10% of the whole.
How the tax is collected differs by regime:
- The platform withholds tax. This withholding tax (bedrijfsvoorheffing / précompte professionnel) is on your form 281.29, in box 7, and is set off in your return. You declare your income in part 2, box XV of your tax return: the gross amount of form 281.29 under code 1460/2460, the withholding tax under code 1461/2461. The 50% deduction for expenses is applied automatically, according to the FOD Financiën.
- The association withholds nothing. You pay the tax in the settlement at the end of the year, says the RSZ. Your pay is on a form 281.27, and you declare the gross amount in box XV, B, 1, b. Here too the tax authority applies the flat-rate expenses automatically, according to the explanatory notes to part 2.
Above the ceiling
If you go over the ceiling, it does not apply only to the part above it. “If this ceiling is exceeded, all income can be requalified as professional income”, writes the FOD Financiën. Your sharing-economy income is then in principle trade profits or professional income (winst / bénéfices or baten / profits), to be declared in box XVII or XVIII, with the withholding tax in box XIX. All your pay from association work then in principle becomes pay as an employee, in box IV. The latter also applies if you exceeded an hours limit and received a form 281.10 with “ja” / “oui” (yes) ticked in box 30, according to the explanatory notes to part 2.
On professional income, according to the RSZ, the ordinary tax rates are due.
Last year counts too. If your gross income from the sharing economy and association work together was higher last year than that year’s ceiling, your income from the sharing economy and association work this year is in principle professional income too. For your 2025 income that was the 2024 ceiling, €7,460; for your 2026 income it is the 2025 one, €7,700.
If you can show that your activity is not professional, because you do not carry it out often enough, your income stays miscellaneous income. So keep the supporting documents for the tax authority.
Earning on the side from home: which route suits you?
You can earn on the side from home by three routes: services to private persons through an approved platform, a flexi-job or an activity of your own as self-employed. A good side income from home therefore starts with the question of which route is yours, because that route sets the rules:
- Services to private persons through an approved platform: then you are in the sharing economy, with the conditions and the ceiling above.
- A flexi-job, with the conditions below.
- Regularly selling your own creations or services outside such a platform: that is an activity, and then you need the status of self-employed.
A flexi-job is, according to socialsecurity.be, an extra job as an employee, alongside your job or your pension, with which you can earn on the side with tax and social advantages, under conditions. Since 1 July 2026 flexi-work is in principle possible in all sectors; a limited number of sectors or activities remain excluded. You pay no employee contribution on your flexi-pay. As long as your flexi-income for a whole year stays under €18,440 (2026), you pay no withholding tax and you do not mention it in your tax return; if you earn more, you pay withholding tax on what goes above €18,440 and you do mention that income. If you are retired, that €18,440 ceiling does not apply. As an employee, in the third quarter preceding your flexi-job you must have worked at least 4/5 for one or more other employers: your regular job and your flexi-job may not be with the same boss.
An occasional service to someone else, outside a professional activity and outside the sharing economy and association work, also produces miscellaneous income. You declare it in box XV, B, 2 of your return, according to the explanatory notes to part 2.
If you sell regularly and for profit, the status comes into play. When exactly is below.
When do you need the status of self-employed after all?
You need the status as soon as you carry out an activity regularly and for profit, not under an employment contract or a civil-service status. The intention to make a profit is enough, says the RSVZ. Self-employed extra income therefore arises in three cases:
- your activity is regular and for profit, and does not run through an approved platform or as association work;
- your income above the ceiling becomes professional income, and your activity is regular;
- your service is in line with your own activity as self-employed.
If you carry out that activity alongside a job for an employer, or alongside a replacement income for a lost job as an employee or civil servant, you are self-employed alongside a job (zelfstandige in bijberoep / indépendant complémentaire), says the RSVZ. That status is often lighter than you fear: with a net professional income under €1,922.16 you pay no social contributions in 2026. You do join a social insurance fund before you start, according to the RSVZ.
If you receive an unemployment benefit, association work is probably not for you. With the RVA / ONEM’s Springplank naar zelfstandige / tremplin-indépendants (the national employment office’s springboard to self-employment) you can, under conditions, start alongside your benefit.
If you become self-employed alongside a job, in BravoLisa, on the Free plan, you can keep the receipts of your deductible expenses, make PDF invoices for private clients and clients abroad, and bring in the payments from your bank statement. A client who is a Belgian VAT payer needs a structured e-invoice through Peppol, and BravoLisa does not send it.
Frequently asked questions
Can you still earn tax-free on the side in Belgium?
Not as under the law of 18 July 2018, which the Constitutional Court annulled with judgment no. 53/2020 of 23 April 2020. Since 2021, income from the sharing economy and association work is taxed at 20% after 50% flat-rate expenses. The exception is the flexi-job: flexi-income under €18,440 a year (2026) has no withholding tax and stays off your return.
How much can you earn through the sharing economy?
Your gross income from the sharing economy and association work together may not exceed €7,700 for 2025 income and €7,890 for 2026 income. The amount is indexed each year. Gross is what the platform paid you plus everything it withheld. If you go over, all your income can become professional income.
How much tax do you pay on sharing-economy income?
Under the ceiling it is miscellaneous income: first 50% flat-rate expenses are deducted, then you pay 20% on the rest, so about 10% of the gross amount. On €2,000 that is €200. The platform withholds tax, shown on form 281.29, and you declare the gross amount in box XV of your return.
How many hours of association work can you do?
In sport 450 hours a year, in the socio-cultural sector 300 hours. Per quarter that is 150 or 100 hours, and in the third quarter 285 or 190 hours. If you do both, 450 hours a year applies to them together. Students may do 190 hours a year. Over a limit, all hours with that employer become ordinary work.
When do you have to become self-employed alongside a job?
As soon as, next to your job, you carry out an activity regularly and for profit outside the sharing economy and association work, or your income above the ceiling becomes professional income and your activity is regular. That is the RSVZ's test. In 2026, alongside a job, you pay no social contributions under €1,922.16 of net professional income.
A little extra next to your job should stay a pleasure. If you know which route you earn by and where its limit lies, the tax bill brings no surprise.
💜💙 Your BravoLisa Team
This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. Every situation is different — consult a qualified professional (tax adviser, accountant, or lawyer) for advice specific to your circumstances. BravoLisa does not accept liability for decisions made based on this information.
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