Paying a volunteer’s expenses in 2026: how much, with no tax or contributions?

Flat-rate allowance or actual expenses: one option per year

For each volunteer, the non-profit chooses one of the two options:

• The flat-rate allowance: a fixed amount, without receipts, at most €44.02 a day and €1,760.83 a year. These ceilings apply to the volunteer, all the organisations they volunteer for taken together.
• Reimbursement of actual expenses: what the volunteer has spent for the activity, with receipts (tickets, invoices), without a ceiling.

The same volunteer cannot combine the two in the same year. The only exception: their actual travel expenses can be added to the flat-rate allowance, up to 2,000 km a year. This kilometre limit does not apply to passenger transport activities.

Activities with the higher annual ceiling

For these activities, the annual ceiling is €3,233.91 instead of €1,760.83. The daily ceiling remains €44.02.

• sport: trainer, sports teacher or coach, youth sports coordinator, referee, jury member, steward, ground manager, marshal;
• day or night care of people who need help;
• non-urgent transport of bedridden patients.

In sport, the higher ceiling does not apply to a volunteer who receives a social security or social assistance benefit, nor to one who also does associative work for the same organisation. First-aiders are not on the list. Volunteer firefighters, volunteer ambulance workers and civil protection members have their own scheme, outside the law on volunteering.

2026 examples

Travel

The non-profit can reimburse travel per kilometre, at most at the State rate for its staff. Two formulas are published:

Bicycle: the official page gives only one rate, for a ‘personal vehicle or a bicycle’. Secondary sources cite €0.37 per km for cycling: we have not found it in an official text.

What happens if a ceiling is exceeded

The person loses volunteer status for the whole year: all their allowances for the year become taxable income, and the National Social Security Office (NSSO) applies its general rules to all their services. The volunteer can then be requalified as an employee or a self-employed person.

The most common pitfall: a volunteer active in two or three associations who receives the maximum from each. Ask them what they receive elsewhere, and write it down.

Volunteers who are unemployed, ill or retired

• Unemployed: the volunteer declares their activity before starting, with form C45B (C45A for a private individual), through their payment body. The National Employment Office (NEO) has 12 working days to reply; without a reply, the activity is authorised. The non-profit can also apply for a general authorisation (form C45F).
• Unfit for work: no prior authorisation according to the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (NIHDI), but the volunteer informs their health insurance fund (mutualité / ziekenfonds), and the medical adviser checks that the activity is compatible with their state of health.
• Pensioner: volunteering is not counted as professional income, within the limit of the tax exemption.
• Social integration income: inform the Public Centre for Social Welfare (CPAS/OCMW) before starting.

The non-profit’s obligations

• Give the volunteer an information note before they start: the organisation’s purpose and legal status, insurance, allowances, any professional secrecy.
• Keep, per calendar year, the list of allowances paid to each named volunteer, to show to the NSSO inspectors if they ask for it.
• Insure the organisation’s civil liability: mandatory for a non-profit. Free insurance is available through the provinces and the Cocof. Insurance for the volunteer’s bodily injury, on the other hand, is not mandatory.
• No Dimona (immediate declaration of employment), no NSSO declaration, no tax form.

And in 2027?

Frequently asked questions

What next?

• Paying someoneVolunteer, associative work, student, flexi-job or contract: which to choose?
• Associative workHours, ceiling and net pay of the ‘Article 17’ contract.
• The year’s obligationsAccounts, UBO, general meeting, annual tax on non-profit assets.