Grants and Tax Incentives for IP in Belgium

The legal framework

Belgium supports innovation at two points: when the IP is created and when it earns money. The instruments below are separate, each with its own authority, conditions and paperwork, and they can be combined.

Lowering the cost of creating IP

Regional grants. R&D funding is mostly regional. The Flemish agency VLAIO supports development projects, research projects and feasibility studies of companies established in Flanders. Wallonia has its own aid for company R&D, and Brussels has Innoviris. At European level, Horizon Europe funds collaborative and single-company projects. Support percentages, minimum and maximum project sizes and uplifts for small companies or cooperation vary by programme and are revised, so always check the current call.

Exemption from payment of professional withholding tax for researchers (art. 275/3 WIB 92). An employer running a research programme registered with the Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) may retain up to 80% of the withholding tax on the pay of qualifying researchers, in proportion to the time they spend on the programme. The diploma determines the level of the exemption: master's and doctoral degrees in the recognised scientific fields are the core case, and bachelor-level staff qualify to a lesser extent. Registration must precede the work. A Programme Law of 2026 is reported to introduce a limiting correction factor from 1 January 2027.

Taxing the income efficiently

Innovation income deduction (art. 205/1 ff. WIB 92). A company can deduct 85% of its net qualifying income from patents, supplementary protection certificates, copyright-protected software resulting from an R&D programme, plant breeders' rights, and orphan drug and data exclusivity rights. At the 25% corporate rate, the effective rate is about 3.75%. The regime follows the OECD nexus approach: the benefit is linked to the R&D the company performed itself. Since assessment year 2025, a company can convert all or part of the deduction into a tax credit. The current government has said it intends to keep the regime.

Copyright tax regime. Individuals who transfer or license copyright in their own works can have the fee taxed at 15% as movable income, within conditions and an indexed annual ceiling. The reform in force since 2023 tightened the conditions, and software was reopened by legislation in 2026. See The Belgian Tax Regime for Copyrights.

Ownership is the common condition

Nearly every instrument asks, in some form, who owns the results. Employment contracts need assignment clauses, contractor agreements need a written transfer, and collaboration agreements need ownership rules. Under Belgian copyright law, rights in works made by employees do not move to the employer automatically unless the contract provides for it (software created by an employee in the course of their duties is a statutory exception), so the paperwork has to be done when the work is created. For the deduction, the register should reflect that the company holds the rights.

In practice

A Ghent software company develops a data-analysis tool with six engineers. Before the project starts, it registers the programme with BELSPO and keeps time records for the three engineers who hold a master's degree and work mostly on research. It applies for a VLAIO development project for part of the costs. When the tool is later licensed to customers abroad, the company reviews whether the software qualifies for the innovation income deduction. It checks that every developer signed an assignment, that the R&D was carried out in-house, and that the costs financed by the grant are not counted a second time in the nexus calculation.

A second example. A founder-engineer wrote the first version of the software before the company existed, and there is no written assignment. The company cannot show that it owns the code. That does not only cause problems in an investor's due diligence; it also undermines the deduction. The fix is a simple assignment, ideally signed before any claim is made.

Across both examples, the practical steps are the same: map what you do and what you own, register early where registration is required, keep evidence as you go, and allocate each cost to one instrument only. Our portfolio platform keeps the register of what the company holds. Our Document Studio is used for assignment clauses and collaboration agreements. In the client portal, project documents and records can be shared with us.

Frequently asked questions

Can grants and tax incentives be combined?

Yes, in general. The same expenditure must not be counted twice, and state aid rules may cap the total support, so the allocation of costs across instruments needs planning.

Does software qualify for the innovation income deduction?

It can. Copyright-protected software resulting from a research or development programme is one of the qualifying types, provided the nexus and ownership conditions are met.

Do we have to be in Flanders or Brussels?

The grant agency depends on where the company is established. Horizon Europe is open across the EU, and the tax measures apply nationally.

Can we get certainty in advance?

For several of the tax measures, an advance ruling can be requested from the Belgian ruling commission, which gives certainty before the claim.

How this connects

Each instrument has its own service page: R&D grants and subsidies, the withholding tax exemption for R&D staff and the innovation income deduction. The records are gathered in the client portal.