What is the Tax Shelter and who benefits from it?
Capital investments in start-ups and scale-ups entitle you to a tax reduction of 25%, 30% or 45% of your investment.
Each person can invest €100,000 per year via this mechanism and therefore can benefit from a maximum of €45,000 in tax reduction each year. You can benefit from the tax shelter as long as you are subject to personal income tax in Belgium and you invest as a natural person.
For each participatory note acquired via Spreds, you will only be able to claim a tax reduction on the nominal amount of the participatory note, not on any additional fees charged.
However, this measure cannot benefit company directors in which they directly or indirectly exercise their activity as company director.
Indeed, a company director does not need an additional incentive to invest in his own company.
This exclusion applies to all corporate officers:
- managers, directors, liquidators, similar functions;
- independent directors.
This exclusion also applies to persons who indirectly perform a function of a company officer:
- as a permanent representative of another company;
- through another company of which they are shareholders.
In addition, the participation in the share capital of the start-up company may not exceed 30%. Otherwise, the payments that allow the 30% participation to be exceeded are not eligible for the tax reduction.
Under the Belgian Tax Shelter program for start-ups and scale-ups, investors who pay income tax in Belgium can benefit from a tax reduction of 25-30-45% of their investment in the equity of the companies (or in the participating notes linked to this equity investment) as long as they maintain their investment during the following 4 years.
A start-up qualified as a micro-enterprise (45%) is a company that:
- Has been established less than 4 years ago
- Does not exceed 2 of the following criteria:
- Balance sheet total: €350,000
- Employees: 10
- Turnover: €700 000
A start-up qualified as a small business (30%) is a company that:
- Has been established less than 4 years ago
- Does not exceed 2 of the following criteria:
- Balance sheet total: €4,500,000
- Employees: 50
- Turnover: €9,000,000
A scale-up qualified as a small business (25%) is a company that:
- Has been incorporated for more than 4 years and less than 10 years
- Has experienced an average growth in revenue or number of employees (full-time equivalents) of at least 10% over the last two years
- has at least 10 full-time equivalent employees
- Does not exceed 2 of the following criteria:
- Balance sheet total: €4,500,000
- Employees: minimum 10
- Turnover : 9 000 000 €