UK company hiring in Belgium: permits, holiday, notice and payroll

Since the UK left the EU, a British citizen who relocates to Belgium to work is treated as a non-EU national, so the employer must obtain a single permit (permis unique / gecombineerde vergunning) unless the person already holds a right to live and work there. One application covers both work and residence, but two authorities sign it off: the regional employment administration for the job, and the federal Immigration Office (DOFI / DVZ) for the stay.

The salary floors differ by region, which matters if the candidate could live in more than one place:

• Flanders: €48,912 a year for a highly skilled worker who is at least 30, and 80% of that (€39,129.60) for those under 30; the Blue Card floor there is €63,586.
• Wallonia: €53,220 a year (€42,576 below age 30) for the highly qualified route since January 2026; the Blue Card needs €68,815.
• Brussels: €3,703.44 gross a month on the highly qualified route, €4,748.00 on the Blue Card route, both left at their 2025 level when January 2026 arrived.

According to Flanders, its Blue Card is open only where the employer is Belgian and the contract is open-ended or lasts six months or more, and its pages still refer to the 2024 average salary, so recheck the figure on the Flemish government page on highly skilled workers before you fix pay. In Flanders new applications go through the Uniek Loket portal.

Hiring someone who already lives in Belgium with the right to work there removes this step entirely. That is often the quickest way to fill a first role, and it keeps the permit budget for the relocation that really needs it.

For white-collar staff, this year’s paid holiday is earned by last year’s work, which surprises UK HR teams used to holiday that builds up during the current leave year. Twenty days is what a full year earns a person who works Monday to Friday.

The practical effect falls on new starters. Someone who joins in 2026 from abroad, or from study, may have little or no paid leave in their first year, because 2025 gave them no Belgian service to count. Supplementary leave (vacances supplémentaires) can fill the gap, paid as an advance on the following year’s double holiday pay. Agree in the offer how the first year will work, so the candidate does not discover it in August.

Holiday pay has two layers. Salary keeps running during leave, and once a year, normally around May or June, a further 92% of one month’s pay is added as double holiday pay for anyone with a full reference year. A leaver is settled at 15.34% of this year’s gross earnings, plus last year’s if that holiday is still untaken.

Public holidays come on top. There are 10 a year. If one falls on a Sunday or another usual non-working day, it must be replaced by a working day off. This year two holidays missed the working week (Assumption, 15 August, was a Saturday, and All Saints’ Day, 1 November, a Sunday), which left employers on a Monday to Friday schedule owing two replacement days, and the notice naming the 2027 replacement days must go up by mid-December 2026.

Belgium abolished the probation period on 1 January 2014, and a trial clause in an ordinary employment contract signed since then has no effect. A UK-style six-month probation with a shortened notice cannot simply be copied into a Belgian contract.

A newer rule fills part of the gap. A contract whose start date is 1 August 2026 or later can be ended by the employer on one week’s notice at any point in the first half-year, after two weeks or after five months. After six months the scale steps up to 6 weeks, then 7 weeks from nine months, 8 weeks from a year, and continues to grow with seniority. An employer can also end the contract at once by paying an indemnity equal to the pay for the notice not worked.

Reasons matter from the six-month point. Under collective agreement no. 109, a dismissed employee can ask for the concrete reasons by registered letter, and the employer must answer within two months or pay a civil fine of two weeks’ wages. On top of that, a court that finds the dismissal manifestly unreasonable awards from 3 to 17 weeks’ pay. Keeping notes on performance from the first quarter is cheap insurance.

The employee’s own notice is short by comparison and never exceeds 13 weeks, reached after eight years of service. Our guide to Belgian notice rules after the 2026 reform has the full scale, including the 52-week cap for contracts started from 1 June 2026.

Belgian payroll has a fixed rhythm: a Dimona declaration before day one, monthly pay with withholding tax, and a quarterly social security return. A UK payroll team will recognise the discipline, even if the calendar looks different.

• Dimona tells the ONSS (RSZ) that employment has started, and it must be filed before the employee begins work. A second Dimona records the end of employment.
• Withholding tax (précompte professionnel / bedrijfsvoorheffing) is deducted each month using the official formula and passed to the FPS Finance, which credits it against the employee’s final tax bill.
• Employee social security of 13.07% is deducted from gross pay, with no ceiling, plus a special social security contribution that is capped at €731.28 a year for someone taxed alone.
• The DmfA, a quarterly return of pay and working time for every employee, must reach the ONSS within a month of the quarter closing; for July to September 2026 the deadline is 31 October 2026.

For income earned in 2026, the federal bands start at 25% on the first €16,720, move to 40% and then 45% at €29,510, and reach 50% beyond €51,070, with a communal surcharge set by each municipality on top. Our Brussels reference employee on €4,500 a month, once the December bonus and holiday money are counted, takes home about €38,100 for the year, roughly 60% of the €62,970 total gross.

Those deductions mean a Belgian offer and a UK offer with the same gross number put very different amounts in the employee’s account. Quote gross and give the candidate a net estimate for their situation; it avoids a difficult conversation after the first payslip.

The employer carries the first month of sickness, and the social security system carries most family leave. Knowing which is which keeps the budget honest.

For the first 30 days off sick, an employee on an indefinite contract receives full pay from the employer, known as guaranteed salary (salaire garanti / gewaarborgd loon). Day 31 is when sickness insurance starts paying instead. A rule in force since 1 January 2026 links relapses: if the employee falls ill again less than eight weeks after coming back, the absence continues the earlier one and no fresh 30-day period opens. The employee has two working days to hand in a medical certificate, a deadline the work regulations or a collective agreement can change.

The health insurance fund, rather than the company, funds the 15 weeks of maternity leave. Birth leave for the other parent is 20 days, of which the employer pays the first three at full salary. Parental leave, available until a child turns 12, is paid by a federal allowance from the ONEM (RVA).

For a UK finance team the headline is simple: budget for a month of full pay per long illness, and for three days per birth. Everything beyond that is mostly funded through the contributions already in the payroll cost. The detail sits in our guide to sick leave and guaranteed salary in Belgium.

An employee on a Belgian contract who spends part of the month working from the UK can bring UK social security or tax into play, and the answer depends on the pattern of days and on the rules in force at the time. Treat each case on its own facts and take advice before agreeing a split arrangement.

Home working inside Belgium is simpler. Structural telework is governed by collective agreement no. 85: it is voluntary for both sides, needs a written agreement, and gives the teleworker the same rights as office staff. Occasional home working falls under the Law of 5 March 2017. Once structural home working reaches a day a week, the employer may add a home-office allowance with no tax or social security on it, worth up to €164.21 monthly since September 2026 (€160.99 before that).

For a UK company with no Belgian office, that allowance often replaces the desk it would otherwise rent. It is worth deciding at the offer stage, alongside the separate €20 monthly amounts the rules allow for private internet and a private computer.

A UK company has three routes to its first Belgian employee: form a Belgian SRL (BV in Dutch), sign up with the ONSS as a foreign employer with no Belgian establishment and run pay through a social secretariat, or hire through an employer of record. The first means a notary deed, a financial plan and annual filings; the second leaves every Belgian employer duty with you; the third puts the employment contract with us.

Under Employer of Record Belgium, your chosen candidate signs a Belgian contract with us; we handle payroll, the Dimona, the DmfA and withholding tax, and your managers direct the work. Our timeline from signed offer to first Belgian payslip shows each step, and fees are listed on our pricing page, starting from €599 per employee per month.

Whichever route you choose, settle four points before the offer: which joint committee covers the job and its pay floor, how first-year leave will work, whether a permit is needed and in which region, and who in the UK will approve leave, overtime and home working.