Accounting in Belgium: the rules, the deadlines and who does what

The Belgian framework in two minutes

Every business registered with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises keeps accounts suited to its nature and its size. The wording comes from the Code of Economic Law and it has one clear virtue: flexibility. A consultant working alone and a construction company with forty staff are not playing the same game.

In practice the dividing line runs along two criteria. Your legal form first: a BV or SRL, an NV or SA, a cooperative company all keep double entry accounts, and there is no arguing about it. Your turnover next: a sole trader, a general partnership or a limited partnership may keep simplified accounts as long as they stay below 500 000 euros excluding VAT.

Simplified does not mean sloppy. You keep three journals, purchases, sales and financial movements, plus an inventory once a year. That is far lighter than a general ledger, but every euro coming in or going out belongs in there, with its supporting document.

Double entry follows the Belgian standard chart of accounts, the one your accountant refers to with six digit account numbers. Each transaction becomes a debit and a credit that balance out, which is what makes a balance sheet and a profit and loss account possible at year end.

From the cash book to the annual accounts

The practical obligations sit on three horizons. There is the daily work of filing documents and posting entries. There is the quarter, largely taken up by VAT and social contributions. And there is the financial year, which ends with an inventory and, for companies, with the filing of the annual accounts.

A company approves its accounts at the general meeting within six months of the closing date, then files them with the Central Balance Sheet Office of the National Bank within thirty days of that approval, and no later than seven months after year end. Filing late means a fine, and that fine costs a good deal more than the filing fee itself.

A sole trader escapes that filing. Their accounts mainly serve to prepare the personal income tax return, part 2, and to justify the professional expenses claimed. That is no excuse for loose bookkeeping: under audit, a shaky set of accounts always turns against whoever cobbled it together.

Then there is retention. Books, invoices and supporting documents are kept for at least seven years, and ten years for a whole range of items since investigation periods were extended. The rule of thumb is short: keep everything, for ten years, and store electronic invoices in the format they travelled in.

• A purchase journal, a sales journal and a financial journal, kept without gaps or crossings out.
• A yearly inventory of stock, receivables, debts and commitments.
• For companies, a balance sheet and a profit and loss account filed with the National Bank.
• The supporting document behind every entry, findable in seconds.
• Electronic invoices stored in the format in which they were issued or received.

VAT, the rhythm that shapes the year

For most self-employed people, accounting is mainly experienced through VAT. It sets the tempo, and it punishes delay fastest. The normal regime provides for a quarterly return as long as annual turnover stays below 2 500 000 euros excluding tax. Above that, filing becomes monthly, with a few sensitive sectors switching earlier.

Since the VAT chain reform took effect in 2025, quarterly filers have until the 25th of the month following the quarter, where it used to be the 20th. Quarterly advance payments disappeared along the way, which took a worry off many desks. Monthly filers keep their deadline on the 20th.

Three documents orbit the return. The intra-community statement, if you sell goods or services to taxable persons in another member state. The annual listing of Belgian VAT registered clients, due by 31 March. And the special return, for those who file no periodic return but have bought abroad.

A word on the exemption scheme. Below 25 000 euros of annual turnover you may opt for the small business exemption: no VAT charged, no periodic return, but no deduction on your purchases either. Attractive for a service activity with few costs, much less so as soon as you start buying equipment.

Peppol and structured invoicing since 2026

This is the most visible change of recent years. Since 1 January 2026, an invoice between two Belgian taxable persons travels as a structured file over the Peppol network. The format has a name, Peppol BIS 3.0, and your client's software reads it directly, with nobody retyping anything.

The PDF has not vanished, it has changed role. It remains a readable copy you send if your client asks for one, but it is no longer the official document between businesses. Invoices to private customers are not affected: a till receipt, a paper invoice or a PDF are all perfectly fine.

The part people underestimate is receiving. Your suppliers send structured invoices too, and if your receiving channel is not open, theirs land nowhere. You lose the document, and more importantly the deductible VAT attached to it. One check per quarter is enough to keep that risk away.

Technically, your business has to appear in the Peppol directory under scheme 0208, the one tied to your company number. Activation takes a few minutes with a software provider that does its job. The real test is sending a genuine invoice to a genuine client and watching the delivery receipt come back.

What you do, what your accountant does

The question comes up constantly: do I need an accountant? Nothing obliges a sole trader to hire one. A company almost always needs a certified professional for its annual accounts and its corporate tax return, if only because liability for a mistake cannot be shared.

The most efficient split looks like this. You handle the flow: you invoice, you photograph your receipts, you reconcile your bank movements. Your accountant handles the meaning: they classify the tricky items, close the year, and tell you when an expense passes and when it does not.

That split has a direct effect on the fee note. A firm that receives a clean file, with documents already attached and banks reconciled, spends its time on advice rather than on data entry. A file delivered loose in a shoebox is billed at the price of the time it wastes.

One last reassurance for anyone starting out: you are not expected to master the chart of accounts. You are expected to be regular. Half an hour a week, always on the same day, beats two days of panic in January.

• Your side: issuing invoices, collecting documents, tracking payments and flagging anything unusual.
• Their side: the chart of accounts, depreciation, the closing, the tax returns and the advice.
• Shared: the calendar of deadlines, agreed at the start of the year rather than the night before.
• Best avoided: sweeping retroactive corrections, which cost money and weaken the file.

Where Novadesko fits in

Novadesko is Belgian business software, built for freelancers and small structures who want to keep their daily flow in order without turning into accountants. You invoice, you collect payment, you file your purchases, and the entries are prepared behind the scenes.

Peppol invoicing is included, both sending and receiving, with no per document surcharge. Purchase invoices arriving in structured form come in with the amount, the rate and the supplier already recognised: you confirm the expense category and the document lands in the purchase journal.

On the VAT side, the grid fills up as the year goes along, so you see the deadline coming instead of discovering it. On the firm side, your accountant gets a structured file, either as an export in the format their package expects or by working directly in your environment.

The rest depends on your trade: a certified cash register if you sell over the counter, stock tracking if you handle articles, a CRM if your sales cycle runs long. You can start with invoicing alone and add the rest when the need shows up.

Frequently asked questions