A withholding tax return in Belgium is filed online through FinProf, monthly or quarterly. The return and the payment must arrive by the 15th of the following month, into account BE85 6792 0036 3806. Quarterly filing is open to employers who stayed under the threshold last year. Paying late costs 4% interest a year and, once assessed, a 10% fine.
This guide is for the employer or company director who files withholding tax (bedrijfsvoorheffing, précompte professionnel) personally, or who wants to know what the social secretariat does every month. How to calculate the amount is covered in what is withholding tax. Here the topic is the return itself: when, where, into which account and what happens when it goes wrong.
Withholding tax return in Belgium: who, where and how
Every payer in Belgium of income subject to withholding tax must declare and pay that tax. For an employer, that means the wages of its employees. For a company, it also means the remuneration of its directors. You deduct the tax from the pay, pay it over to the state, and the employee offsets it later in their personal tax assessment.
| Question | Answer from FPS Finance |
|---|---|
| Who files the return? | the payer of the withholding tax or its agent |
| How? | online only, through FinProf (module FinProf Legacy) |
| On paper? | only with an exemption from the SME Specific Matters Centre, for example without IT resources |
| Which account? | FINPROF, BE85 6792 0036 3806, BIC GEBABEBB |
| Which file? | the file is created automatically with your first return |
| Where does the post go? | to the registered office as known to the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises |
The team that handles your returns depends on the language of your registered office: Team Bedrijfsvoorheffing Mechelen for Dutch, Team Précompte Professionnel Namur for French and Team Perception Eupen - Sankt Vith for German. The account is the same for all three. For a single return, FinProf picks the competent team itself. If a return still lands with the wrong team, it is accepted and you later get a message with the right details.
An agent, such as an accountant or a social secretariat, gets access through the eGov role management. That is fully online. Ending a mandate or closing a file only works by email to the team, with the company number in the subject line and the end date.
Monthly or quarterly withholding tax
Monthly is the rule. Quarterly filing and payment is allowed for employers who owed little withholding tax the year before. The threshold sits in article 412, third paragraph, of the Income Tax Code 1992 and is set every year.
| Monthly filer | Quarterly filer | |
|---|---|---|
| When | previous year's withholding tax above the threshold | previous year's withholding tax under the threshold |
| Threshold set for 2025 | above € 50,240 | up to € 50,240 |
| Code in FinProf Legacy | M | T |
| Last day | the 15th of the month after the month of payment | the 15th of the month after the quarter |
| Returns per year | twelve | four |
| Recalculation | every January, based on the income declared in the previous year | same |
A small employer with one or two employees usually stays well under that threshold. With a first employee you therefore often start as a quarterly filer. Do check in January whether your frequency has changed: after a year with more staff or a large end of year bonus, the FPS can move you to monthly. The FPS has not yet put the 2026 threshold on its page, so we only cite the 2025 figure.
Withholding tax due dates 2026: the full calendar
Both the return and the payment must have arrived by the due date. The statutory period ends on the 15th. If that day is a Saturday, Sunday, public holiday or bank holiday, it is not extended: the calendar then moves the due date one or two days earlier.
| Return and payment for | Must arrive by |
|---|---|
| December 2025 and the fourth quarter of 2025 | 15 January 2026 |
| January 2026 | 13 February 2026 |
| February 2026 | 13 March 2026 |
| March 2026 and the first quarter of 2026 | 15 April 2026 |
| April 2026 | 13 May 2026 |
| May 2026 | 15 June 2026 |
| June 2026 and the second quarter of 2026 | 15 July 2026 |
| July 2026 | 14 August 2026 |
| August 2026 | 15 September 2026 |
| September 2026 and the third quarter of 2026 | 15 October 2026 |
| October 2026 | 13 November 2026 |
| November 2026 | 15 December 2026 |
| December 2026 and the fourth quarter of 2026 | 15 January 2027 |
The period is the one in which you pay or allocate the wage, not the month in which the work was done. If you pay October's wage on 2 November, the withholding tax belongs to November. Before you shift a pay date, read can I pay wages later and paying wages.
Paying withholding tax: account and reference
The value date counts: the payment is only on time if it is on the FinProf account on the due date. A transfer made on the last day can arrive late because of delays between banks. The system then charges interest automatically.
| Item | What the FPS asks |
|---|---|
| Beneficiary | FINPROF |
| IBAN | BE85 6792 0036 3806 |
| BIC | GEBABEBB |
| Reference | structured, calculated from your company number and the period, with no spaces or dots in the number |
| Standing order | not possible, because the reference changes each period |
| Overpaid | the surplus can move to the next period, on request to the team |
| VAT credit or tax refund | can be applied on request by email, again for each refund |
You find the structured reference on the receipt of your return or through the calculation tool on the FinProf site. Use it for a late payment too: without the right reference, your payment is not linked to the period automatically. A payment made into the FinProf account by mistake can be reclaimed with a bank statement as proof.
Late withholding tax return: interest and fine
The FPS expects you to pay on your own, without a reminder. Anyone who does not pay, or pays late, gets three things in turn.
| Step | What happens | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| After the due date | late interest runs automatically | 4% a year, not charged under € 5 a month |
| Reminder | by post and in MyMinfin, or through your recognised secretariat | no fine yet |
| At least 30 days later | the open balance is assessed and shows as a debt in MyMinfin | fine of 10% of the unpaid amount, minimum € 50, maximum € 1,250 |
| Assessment notice | enforceable title by letter, with a payment notice | pay into BE42 6792 0000 0054, with a new reference |
There is no payment plan for an open withholding tax return. The FPS advises paying as much as possible, even in part, to limit the fine. Only after the assessment notice can you ask for a payment plan. The NSSO works differently: a payment plan for social security is possible earlier, and the NSSO advance payments follow their own calendar.
Worked example
What does late payment of withholding tax cost?
A fictional SME owes € 3,180 in withholding tax for October 2026. The due date is 13 November 2026. One full month of interest is 4% divided by twelve, so € 10.60. The first stretch after the due date counts as half a month, each following calendar month as a full month.
| Paid on | Months of interest | Interest |
|---|---|---|
| 28 November 2026 | half | € 5.30 |
| 10 December 2026 | one and a half | € 15.90 |
| 8 January 2027 | two and a half | € 26.50 |
| after assessment | interest until payment, plus fine | fine € 310 |
The fine is 10% of the unpaid amount, rounded down to the nearest ten: from 318 euros to € 310. It falls between the minimum of € 50 and the maximum of € 1,250. A few days late costs a few euros; a return left until after the reminder costs tens of times more.
The fine can only be reduced in exceptional circumstances, with a reasoned objection through MyMinfin. An exemption from late interest is even stricter and rare.
Withholding tax return and form 281.10
The monthly or quarterly return and the annual form are two separate duties. The withholding tax return covers the amount you deducted and paid over per period. Form 281.10 sums up the whole year per employee: gross pay, benefits, withholding tax deducted. For 2026 pay it must be in Belcotax-on-web by 28 February 2027. For a company director it is form 281.20, with the same date.
| Withholding tax return | Form 281.10 | |
|---|---|---|
| How often | monthly or quarterly | once a year, per employee |
| Where | FinProf | Belcotax-on-web |
| Content | total withholding tax deducted in the period | pay, benefits and withholding tax for the year |
| Deadline | the 15th after the period, per the calendar | 28 February 2027 for 2026 income |
If the total of your forms does not match the sum of your returns, it shows. How to fill in the form is in form 281.10. The amounts per employee come from the individual account, which you must also be able to show during an inspection.
Five mistakes in a withholding tax return
- Transferring on the last day. The value date counts, not the date of your order.
- Reusing an old reference. The reference is tied to the period; with last month's reference the payment lands in the wrong place.
- Wanting a standing order. That is not possible, precisely because the reference changes.
- Using the period of the work instead of the period of payment. The tax belongs to the month in which you pay or allocate the wage.
- Not checking whether you file monthly or quarterly. The frequency can change every January.
Do not forget the special amounts either: double holiday pay and the end of year bonus have their own percentage, and the municipal tax of 7% is already built into the scales. What changes in January is in withholding tax 2027 and what changes in 2027.
Withholding tax return with Business Centrum and Acerta
Business Centrum is a social bureau in Ghent, founded in 2013, and a recognised partner of Acerta. We handle the employer side: the payroll, the Dimona declarations, the contracts and the leave of your staff. Acerta, recognised under number 250, files the declarations and collects the contributions. The withholding tax return then runs through the secretariat, not through your own FinProf login. How that works with a first employee or payroll for one employee is on those pages; how we work with Acerta is on social bureau Acerta.
No longer want to follow up the withholding tax return yourself? Request a call back and Business Centrum will look with you at how your payroll and returns run.