Belgium taxes music royalty income at 15 percent, and since 1 January 2026 the lump-sum expense deduction that cut the real burden to roughly 7.5 percent applies only to artists holding an arts work certificate.
The regime, in numbers
Income from transferring or licensing copyright and neighbouring rights counts as movable income rather than professional income, which is what unlocks the flat rate. Cultuurloket, the Flemish arts business advice centre, sets out the conditions.
- The rate is 15 percent on the band from 0 to 77,220 euro for income year 2026, up from 75,360 euro in 2025.
- Your average copyright income across the four previous tax years must also stay under 77,220 euro.
- Collecting society payments count. Sabam, PlayRight, SACD, Sofam and deAuteurs are named explicitly.
- Performers are covered, not only writers: the rules cite article XI.205 of the Code of Economic Law alongside XI.165.
Above the ceiling, the excess can be reclassified as professional income and taxed on the progressive scale.
The 70/30 rule decides how much of a fee qualifies
Where you are paid both for work delivered and for a rights transfer, only part of the fee can be copyright income. The split was phased in at 50/50 for income year 2023, 60/40 for 2024, and a permanent 70 percent services to 30 percent copyright from 2025.
It does not apply where the money is for later reuse, or for a licence with no service attached. Then the payment is 100 percent copyright income. A catalogue licence and a session fee are not the same instrument, and your paperwork has to say which one it is.
What changed this year
The programme law of 30 May 2026, published in the Belgian State Gazette on 1 June, abolished the lump-sum expense deduction for everyone without an arts work certificate.
Until income year 2025, every recipient could deduct 50 percent of the first 20,100 euro and 25 percent of the next band to 40,190 euro before the rate applied. Attentia’s tax desk puts the effect plainly: in most cases the burden rises from 7.5 percent to 15 percent.
Holders of an ordinary or plus certificate keep the deduction, at 50 percent to 20,590 euro and 25 percent from 20,590 to 41,180 euro for income year 2026. The starter certificate is excluded, and Bird and Bird notes that even certificate holders only get the deduction on activities the certificate covers.
Personal income tax applies to income paid from 1 January 2026. Withholding tax moved on 11 June 2026.
Why this lands on the distribution side
Sabam withholds the 15 percent for you and issues a statement showing gross, commission, social fund contribution and net. It charges 8 percent on online rights, pays monthly, and says 95 percent of a stream’s royalties reach you within six months, tracked through ICE across 205 platforms in 245 territories.
A distributor does none of that. Master recording royalties arrive gross, and the ceiling, the four-year average and the 70/30 test apply per person across every payer, not per contract.
So the figures that decide your bill are your total rights income for the year from all sources, and whether each agreement characterises the money as a licence or a service fee. That is an argument for royalty reporting which separates composition income from master income line by line.
Belgium is not an outlier in making paperwork the deciding variable: Czech royalties give an unregistered song three years to claim its share, and Brazilian artists lose 30 percent on US streams with no treaty to get it back.
The scale check
Of the 17,819 authors Sabam paid for online use of their music in 2023, only 862 received more than 1,000 euro, and streaming was 11 percent of Belgian collections that year, Sabam’s Steven Desloovere told VRT NWS. One Belgian in ten held a paid subscription.
For most Belgian artists the certificate question is therefore settled by live, sync and master income, not by Spotify, much as Switzerland’s six-month online payment lag shapes where Swiss earnings land.
The action
If you hold a starter certificate or none at all, the Kunstwerkcommissie runs a fast-track route to an ordinary certificate through the Working in the Arts platform. Cultuurloket advises stating in the motivation field that the application is solely for the copyright expense deduction.
