Belgian Copyright Tax Regime

The question

You, or the people who work for you, create original works: software, designs, texts, music. Part of what they are paid can be a fee for transferring or licensing the copyright, and that fee may be taxed as movable income at 15% instead of at progressive rates. Does your situation qualify, and how do you set it up so that it holds?

The regime is anchored in copyright law (Book XI of the Code of Economic Law) and in the Income Tax Code 1992. It was reformed by the Programme Law of 26 December 2022, with effect from 2023, which narrowed who can use it and tightened the conditions. Software developers were left outside the reformed regime. Legislation adopted in July 2026 reopens it for software with effect from 1 January 2026, and flat-rate cost deductions are now limited to holders of a certain artist certificate. We confirm the current conditions at the start of each engagement.

Clients come to us when a company wants to start paying copyright fees to creators or developers, when an existing arrangement has to be checked against the 2023 reform and the 2026 changes, or when the tax administration has asked for the documents behind past payments. Sometimes the question comes from the individual, such as a freelance designer who wants to know how to invoice.

Our approach

We first ask whether there is a work at all. Copyright protects an original creation that reflects the author's own free and creative choices. The question is answered per work, not per profession. The Court of Cassation has held, in a case about a lawyer, that the rules of a profession do not exclude creative choices in wording and structure, though the author must still show originality. For software, see our note on protecting software.

Next we test the arrangement against the conditions in the Belgian tax regime for copyrights. Rights must be transferred or licensed to a third party for a qualifying use. Where the rights are tied to services, such as work done under an employment contract or a client assignment, only a limited share of the total remuneration can be allocated to the copyright, and it must be in line with market practice. An annual ceiling, indexed each year, also applies, together with an averaging test over previous years. The tax administration challenges arrangements that look like a relabelling of salary.

Then we document. We draft the transfer or licence agreement with our Document Studio, covering the works, the scope of the rights, the remuneration and the basis of the allocation. Our portfolio platform keeps a register of copyright works with their history, so the works behind each payment can be identified later.

Finally, we place the regime in context with company-level incentives such as the innovation income deduction, and where useful we prepare a ruling request.

Throughout, the division of work is clear. Our technology produces the first drafts of the agreements and keeps the register of works. A lawyer decides whether a work is original, whether the rights are validly transferred and how the remuneration is split. The tax position is the client's, and we state our reasoning in writing so that it can be defended if the administration asks. Where the position is uncertain, we say so and propose either a ruling request or a more cautious structure.

What you get

• An eligibility assessment per person and per type of work.
• A written transfer or licence agreement and, for employees, the contract clauses that match it.
• A reasoned allocation between copyright fees and other remuneration.
• A register of the works covered.
• A prepared response if the administration asks questions.

Consider a Ghent digital agency that employs six designers. It wants to pay part of their remuneration as a copyright fee. We first list the works the designers actually create and which of them are original. We then check whether the contracts transfer the rights, propose a market-based method for the share of the copyright fee, and test it against the cap for fees linked to services. We draft the transfer clauses and a schedule of works, set up the register, and tell the agency what it must not do, such as paying a fixed monthly amount without any link to works. The agency leaves with a documented arrangement and a clear view of the residual risk.

Next step

Describe who creates what in your organisation and how they are paid today. We will tell you whether the regime is worth pursuing and what would be needed.

Schedule a meeting or contact us.