Skip to content
EN
Indexo Pro

Understand · Payroll glossary

What does self-employed as a secondary occupation mean?

Updated on

A person self-employed as a secondary occupation carries on a self-employed activity alongside a job as an employee of at least half-time: they pay no social security contributions below €1,922.16 of net taxable income a year (2026). In Dutch: zelfstandige in bijberoep.

Definition of self-employment as a secondary occupation

Their social protection (pension, health care) comes mainly from their main job: their self-employed contributions are therefore reduced. Above the threshold, they pay 20.5% of their net taxable income, with an initial provisional contribution of €98.51 a quarter.

Their self-employed income is added to their salary for tax purposes, at the rate of their highest brackets.

The key figure in 2026

€1,922.16Annual net taxable income below which a secondary self-employed person pays no contributions (2026)

Source: Cotisations sociales des indépendants 2026, FPS Social Security. 2027 amount: not yet published. This entry will be updated as soon as it is.

Worked example

A full-time white-collar worker earns €10,000 of net taxable income from weekend work as a graphic designer: 20.5% × €10,000 = €2,050 in social security contributions a year, before their fund’s management fees. With only €1,500, below the threshold, they would pay nothing.

In Dutch: zelfstandige in bijberoep

In Dutch-language letters from your social insurance fund, your accountant or the tax authorities, a person self-employed as a secondary occupation is called ‘zelfstandige in bijberoep’; in French-language ones, ‘indépendant à titre complémentaire’.

Dutch term taken from: Xerius (secondary source).

Not to be confused with…

  • Self-employed social security contributions: paid every quarter to the social insurance fund: 20.5% of professional income up to €75,024.54, then 14.16% up to €110,562.42 (2026).
  • Associative work: associative work lets you provide paid services to an association (sport, culture, socio-cultural work) without social security contributions and with reduced tax, within a ceiling of €7,890 a year in 2026, shared with the sharing economy.

Calculate it for your situation

Rates, minimum and maximum 2026, by status, and how your quarterly contributions are calculated.

Social contributions

Related terms

Sources

Parameters in force on 1 October 2026. Each parameter links to its source, the official one where it exists; a secondary source is flagged as such.