During this legislature, a total of 100 measures were rolled out by Liberal Minister David Clarinval to support the self-employed and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These initiatives aim to strengthen the status of self-employed workers and provide essential support to SMEs, which make up 99% of our Belgian economic fabric.
They all aim to improve the social status of the self-employed, facilitate both the launch and development of businesses, reduce the tax burden, support growth, or provide help during more difficult periods. These include support measures for primostarters, awareness-raising on mental wellbeing, reform of the bridging right, and increased pensions.
Thanks to Minister Clarinval and the MR, entrepreneurial initiatives and self-employed workers keep seeing their situation improve!
Business start-up
- Support for primostarters: contribution reduction for the first quarter of activity
- Support for artist primostarters
- Support for entrepreneurship among people with disabilities
- Platform workers
During the course of the activity
Regarding contributions
- Removal of fixed thresholds for calculating provisional contributions
- Payment facilities for social contributions during crises
Regarding benefits
→ Bridging right
- Crisis measures during the coronavirus crisis
- Crisis measure during the floods
- Welfare adjustment
- Crisis measure: War in Ukraine
- Crisis measure: Energy
- Welfare adjustment
- Structural reform of the bridging right
→ Sickness benefits
- Crisis measures during the coronavirus crisis
- Welfare adjustment
- Optimisation of the incapacity for work declaration
- Electronic certificate
- Welfare adjustment
- Optimisation of the assessment of incapacity for work
- Change of conditions for prisoner benefits
- Combining a benefit with guaranteed pay
→ Reintegration of the long-term sick
- Easing of the request for authorised activity during a period of incapacity
- Creation of Return to Work pathways
- Accountability measure
- Bonus for hiring disabled workers
- Support for return to work following incapacity
- Strengthening of framework agreements with regional employment services
- Increase in the bonus for hiring disabled workers
- Simplification of the authorised activity system
→ Burnout
- Project “a way out of the impasse”
- Awareness campaign
- Pilot projects
- Structural measure
→ Workplace accidents
- Compulsory “workplace accident” insurance for platform workers (self-employed)
→ Leave
- Extension of paternity and birth leave
- Extension of adoption and foster parental leave
- Welfare adjustment
- Creation of bereavement leave
- Increase in the amount of maternity allowance
- Welfare adjustment
Regarding the fight against social fraud
Fighting fraud in relation to coronavirus aid
- Additional staff for INASTI inspection services
- Measure against affiliations for fictitious activity (9quater ARS)
- Development of fair competition plans
- Creation of a register of active partners
- Withholding obligation
- Social Criminal Code
Regarding the social status of self-employed workers in general
Study on solidarity within the status
- Change to alternative financing
- Digitalisation of INASTI for the self-employed
At retirement
→ Statutory pensions
- Removal of the correction coefficient
- Welfare adjustment
- Extension of the transition allowance period
- Increase in the pension ceiling
- Increase in the minimum pension
- Improved access to the minimum pension for assisting spouses
- Structural increase in authorised activity limits for beneficiaries under 65 with family responsibilities receiving only a survivor's pension
- Welfare adjustment
- Pension bonus
- Effective work requirement for access to the minimum pension
- Improvement of mypension
→ Supplementary pensions
- Analysis of costs in supplementary pensions
- Transparency in supplementary pensions
SMEs
Covid crisis measures
VAT reduction to support the hospitality sector
- Corona tax shelter
- Tax incentive for rent waiver
- Reconstitution reserve
- Temporary Covid unemployment
- Social security exemptions for certain sectors (employers)
- Moratoria on business loans (Covid)
- Moratorium on bankruptcies (Covid)
- “Covid” judicial reorganisation procedure and its permanent adoption
Energy crisis measures
Energy code of conduct for SMEs
- Moratorium on bankruptcies (energy)
- Temporary “energy” unemployment
- Reduction of excise duties on gas and electricity
Competitiveness/investment support/employment and hiring support measures
Investment deduction
- Reduction of employer contributions by 7.07%
- Zero contribution
Boosting SME access to public procurement
Boosting SME access to public procurement
Digitalisation
- Improvement of SME cyber resilience
- Support for e-commerce
Craftspeople/sustainability/short supply chains
- Support for craftspeople
- Support for the transition to a more circular economy
- Revaluation of professional excellence competitions
Support for entrepreneurship
Success stories platform
- Women's entrepreneurship
- Initiatives to support entrepreneurship
Improving access to financing
- Strengthening of the tax shelter
- Bank financing of SMEs
- Round table on access to financing for women entrepreneurs
- Conference on SME access to financing as part of the Belgian Presidency
Intellectual professions
- Modernisation of the rules on access to the profession for legal entities: surveyors, estate agents, car experts, architects and psychologists
Administrative simplification
- Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA)
- Single Digital Gateway (SDG)
Sectoral measures
- UTP
- VAT on demolition and reconstruction
- “Franchise” contracts in the food chain: unfair clauses
- Strengthening of pre-contractual information requirements for commercial partnerships and creation of an advisory commission on commercial distribution contracts
Payment terms
- Specific measures on B2B payment terms