Why a payslip is mandatory
Article 15 of the Pay Protection Act requires the employer to give the employee a statement with every final settlement of pay. What it must show is set by the joint committee, or otherwise by royal decree. The employer also keeps an individual account for each employee, one of the mandatory social documents.
Exceptions
For a Belgian employer there is no exception: the act applies to every employee with an employment contract. Only a foreign employer that temporarily posts employees to Belgium can be temporarily exempt if it presents comparable pay documents from its own country (Article 15bis).
What is the risk?
Not giving a pay statement, or giving one without the mandatory data, is a level 3 offence under Article 164 of the Social Criminal Code: an administrative fine of € 1,000 to € 10,000, per employee concerned. A missing or incorrect individual account is a separate offence under Article 187.
What to do
With every final pay settlement, give a payslip with the mandatory items; an electronic portal is enough. Keep the individual account for each employee and retain it.
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Sources
Every amount and deadline on this page was checked against these official sources, last consulted on .