Form 281.10 (fiche 281.10) is the annual tax form for pay that you, as an employer in Belgium, draw up for every employee, showing the year's taxable pay and the withholding tax deducted. You file it electronically through Belcotax-on-web, for 2026 pay by 28 February 2027 at the latest, and you give every employee a copy by the same date, including anyone who left during the year. You can correct an error until 30 September 2029.
The form closes the year on what you withhold month by month: how withholding tax works is explained in what is bedrijfsvoorheffing. This guide is about the form itself: who gets one, how you file it, by when, and what happens when something goes wrong.
What is form 281.10?
Form 281.10 is the individual form for wages. The Royal Decree implementing the Income Tax Code 1992 requires everyone who owes withholding tax (bedrijfsvoorheffing) to file, at the end of each year, a form for every person who received income. For an employer, that means one form 281.10 per employee.
The form shows, among other things, the start date and leaving date if they fall in the year, the gross taxable pay, benefits in kind, separately taxable income such as notice pay, commuting allowances and the withholding tax deducted. The year on the form is the year in which you paid or granted the pay, even if your accounting year is not the calendar year.
You do not draw up the summary statement 325.10 yourself. According to FPS Finance, only the forms 281 have to be filed through Belcotax-on-web, and the FPS derives the 325 statements from the data on those forms. The pay on the form is the gross taxable amount: gross pay minus the employee's personal social security contributions, before deduction of withholding tax. How those steps work each month is shown in our guide from gross to net.
Form 281.10 in Belgium: who needs one?
Every employee to whom you paid or granted pay during the year. Also someone who only worked a few weeks, and someone who was no longer employed on 31 December: in that case you enter the leaving date.
| Situation | Which form |
|---|---|
| Blue-collar or white-collar employee, employed all year | Form 281.10 |
| Employee who left in 2026 | Form 281.10, with the leaving date |
| Student with a student employment contract | Form 281.10, with the total student pay in a separate box |
| Flexi-job worker | Form 281.10, with the flexi-job pay in its own box |
| Pay with no withholding tax deducted because it was too low | A form 281.10 all the same |
| Company director, such as the managing director of your company | Form 281.20, not 281.10 |
| Unemployment benefit or other replacement income | No form 281.10: the paying body issues its own form |
| Commissions and fees paid to a self-employed person | Form 281.50, with its own rules |
On replacement income the FPS is clear: apart from bad-weather stamps, you may no longer put it on form 281.10. Forgetting a student or flexi-job worker because no tax was withheld is a common mistake. The form is required in every case where withholding tax is due in principle, even if the amount was too low to actually withhold anything.
Filing form 281.10 through Belcotax-on-web
You file the forms electronically through Belcotax-on-web, the FPS Finance application. Paper forms 281.10 are no longer accepted. An exception is only possible if you lack the necessary IT means, and the FPS grants it only in very exceptional circumstances.
Who files. The employer itself, a social secretariat or another body you authorise. If you do it yourself, your company's legal representative first assigns the Belcotax-on-web roles through the eGov role management. You log in with an eID card reader or with itsme. The obligation rests with you as the party owing the withholding tax; a social secretariat files as the sender.
How. In the application you enter forms one by one on screen, or you upload a file. Each submission is followed by an acknowledgement of receipt and a validation. Check the status yourself in Belcotax-on-web rather than waiting for an e-mail.
What changes for 2026 income. The FPS is launching a new version of Belcotax-on-web from February 2027, and it already applies to the forms for income year 2026. Files in XML format will no longer be accepted: anyone filing by file uses the JSON Lines format or the new API. There is no transition year. The old application remains only for 2025 income and earlier. If you use payroll software, check now whether it is ready.
National Register number. From 1 January 2028 at the latest, the National Register number is mandatory on all tax forms. Start entering it now for every employee.
Form 281.10: the deadline for 2026 income
| What | What the official text says | For 2026 pay |
|---|---|---|
| File the forms in Belcotax-on-web | Royal Decree: before 1 March. FPS Finance: at the latest on 28 February | 28 February 2027 |
| Copy to every employee | Royal Decree: before 1 March | 28 February 2027 |
| Correct a form | Until 30 September of the third year after the income year | 30 September 2029 |
| Last file the FPS accepts, including a corrective one | Not after 30 September of the third year after the income year | 30 September 2029 |
Timeline for income year 2026
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1 January to 31 December 2026 | All pay you pay or grant in 2026 goes on the form for 2026 income |
| 30 November 2026 | Example: an employee leaves. Her form 281.10 shows that leaving date |
| January 2027 | The FPS publishes the notices to employers for 2026 income, including the one on correcting forms |
| February 2027 | The new Belcotax-on-web opens for 2026 income. For comparison: for 2025 income the application opened on 2 February 2026 |
| Weekend of 6 February 2027 | Maintenance weekend: MyMinfin and other FPS online services may be interrupted |
| 28 February 2027 | Last day to file and to give each employee a copy |
| 1 January 2028 | National Register number mandatory on all tax forms |
| 30 September 2029 | Last day to correct a form for 2026 income |
The employee's copy of form 281.10
Before 1 March you must hand every employee a properly completed copy of their form, so they can fill in their personal income tax return. For 2026 pay, that is by 28 February 2027 at the latest.
- You choose the medium. Paper, post or e-mail are all allowed. If you send the form by e-mail only, it is best to ask the employee's consent beforehand.
- Your own layout is allowed. No prior permission is needed, as long as it contains the same information as the official model, with the same box numbers, headings and codes.
- Also for leavers. A former employee is entitled to a copy like anyone else. Keep a valid postal address or, with their consent, an e-mail address whenever someone leaves.
Example. A white-collar employee works for you until Monday 30 November 2026 and starts with another employer in December. You draw up a form 281.10 for the pay you gave her in 2026, with 30 November 2026 as the leaving date. Her leaving holiday pay goes in the box for separately taxable income as early holiday pay, as does any notice pay. Her new employer draws up its own form for December's pay. So she receives two forms 281.10 for 2026, and you get yours to her by 28 February 2027 at the latest. The other documents for her departure, such as the C4 and the individual account, are in the checklist social documents on dismissal.
Correcting or cancelling a form 281.10
As soon as you spot an error, you cancel the incorrect form and replace it. That always happens in Belcotax-on-web: filing paper forms to correct data filed through Belcotax is prohibited.
For 2026 income the correction works like this: you file a new form with the same key as the original form, with the code for "cancels and replaces" in the box provided, and you fill in the new form completely with all the correct data. The new form replaces the old one, which is cancelled. According to the FPS, the notice with the details for 2026 income will appear in January 2027.
For 2025 income and earlier, the FPS asks you to give the employee a copy of the corrected form marked "Cancels and replaces the previous one" (Vernietigt en vervangt de vorige). Do the same for 2026: the employee must base their tax return on the right figures.
You can correct a form for 2026 income until 30 September 2029. After that the FPS accepts no file at all, not even a corrective one. If you recover overpaid wages from an employee, a separate procedure applies: discuss it with whoever files your forms.
What if you do not file form 281.10, or file it late?
If you file after the deadline, the FPS treats the file as late for tax purposes. The consequences set out in the law:
| Consequence | What the law says |
|---|---|
| Administrative fine | From € 50 to € 1,250 for each breach of the Income Tax Code 1992 or its implementing decrees (art. 445 ITC 92) |
| Deduction of wages | Pay to staff and former staff is only accepted as a business cost if individual forms support it, in the form and within the time limit set by the King (art. 57 ITC 92) |
| Separate assessment, in corporate income tax | 100% of the costs not supported by individual forms (art. 219 ITC 92) |
The law contains two exceptions that often make the difference. The fine and the separate assessment do not apply if you show that the amount is included in the tax return filed by the recipient. The separate assessment also does not apply if the recipient was identified unambiguously within two years and six months after 1 January of the tax year. A late form is therefore not automatically a lost deduction, but it is a discussion with the tax authority that you can avoid.
There is a consequence for the employee too. Their tax return in MyMinfin is pre-filled with the pay forms that employers submitted electronically. If your form is missing, their pay is missing from that pre-filled return.
Finding your form 281.10 as an employee
Your employer must give you a copy of your form 281.10 before 1 March. If you have lost it, FPS Finance says you do not need to ask for a duplicate: in MyMinfin you will find the tax forms that employers filed through Belcotax-on-web, online and as a PDF, under your documents. If your form is not there or an amount is wrong, ask your employer: only they can file or correct the form.
Mistakes employers make with form 281.10
- Waiting until the end of February. In 2027, 28 February falls on a Sunday and the new Belcotax-on-web only goes live in February. If a submission is rejected on the last day, you have no margin left to fix it.
- Forgetting the employee who left. Someone who left in March also gets a form and a copy. Without an address or e-mail address, that stalls.
- Putting the managing director on a form 281.10. A company director gets a form 281.20.
- No form for a student or flexi-job worker because no tax was withheld. The form is still required.
- Correcting an error on paper. What was filed through Belcotax-on-web is corrected only through Belcotax-on-web.
- Sending the copy by e-mail only without consent. Ask for consent beforehand, or hand over a paper copy.
- Leaving out the National Register number. From 1 January 2028 at the latest it is mandatory on all tax forms.
What Business Centrum does for you
Business Centrum draws up the forms 281.10 for all your employees, including those who left during the year, and takes care of filing them through Belcotax-on-web, as part of your payroll administration and together with Acerta. You receive the copies to hand to your employees, and you have a fixed point of contact when an employee comes to you with a question about their form. Want to know how that works for your company? Ask us.