Choosing an EOR in Belgium: the questions that separate providers

The quickest way to judge a Belgian EOR is to ask for three documents before you talk about price: a sample employment contract, a sample payslip and the work regulations its employees receive. Together they show who the legal employer is, how pay is built and whether the provider has done the groundwork every Belgian employer must do.

The contract should name the EOR as employer, state the joint committee, and contain intellectual property and confidentiality clauses, because no Belgian statute automatically transfers everything an employee creates to whoever pays them. The payslip should show employee social security at 13.07%, withholding tax (précompte professionnel / bedrijfsvoorheffing) and the household-based special contribution on lines of their own, with the EOR’s ONSS employer number on it.

Belgian law makes the règlement de travail (arbeidsreglement), the work regulations, compulsory even for an employer with one worker. The document has to cover working hours, pay methods, notice rules, sanctions and the addresses of first aid and the inspection services. A provider that cannot produce them on request has a gap in the basics.

Language is part of the same test. Belgium has three official languages, and documents are normally issued in French or Dutch depending on the region. At Employer of Record Belgium we give clients an English explanation alongside the official text. Expect the same from anyone on your list: a manager in another country cannot support an employee through a contract nobody on your side can read.

A provider that quotes a salary cost without first asking which joint committee applies has skipped the most Belgian question of all. The committee decides the minimum scale, the bonuses and the timing of indexation, and two similar-looking jobs can fall under different committees with different rules.

For white-collar staff with no specific committee the answer is PC 200. A competent EOR should be able to tell you, without looking it up, that PC 200 raised scales and actual salaries by 2.21% on 1 January 2026, that its working week averages 38 hours, and that its January 2026 minimum for a Class A starter is €2,242.80 a month.

Then ask about the index centimes. Since the spring 2026 Programme Law, pay above €4,000 a month (full-time reference) no longer receives full indexation until 2% has been held back, and employers pay a temporary levy to the ONSS tied to what they save. For PC 200 the first effect comes at the January 2027 indexation. Ask how the provider will show that contribution on your invoice and how it will explain the change to employees above the threshold.

Finally, ask about the wage norm. It was set at 0% for 2025-2026, which restricts real wage-cost increases beyond indexation and scale steps. A provider that knows these three rules is likely to know the rest.

Holiday pay is where Belgian payroll most often goes wrong, so it deserves its own round of questions. White-collar employees receive single holiday pay, which is simply their normal salary while on leave, and a second sum, the double pécule de vacances, equal to 92% of a month’s pay and normally paid around May or June.

Ask the provider to explain how double holiday pay is taxed. The right answer: the employer owes nothing on it, and the employee’s 13.07% special deduction is charged on only 85/92 of the sum, leaving the 7/92 slice untouched. Then ask what happens when someone leaves: the exit holiday pay owed to a leaver comes to 15.34% (7.67% single plus 7.67% double), calculated on the gross earned in that year, and for the previous year too if it has not yet been paid out.

The PC 200 end-of-year bonus, a full month’s salary due by December to anyone with six months of service, and the June annual premium of €330.84 in 2026, round out the package. All four payments are predictable, so a good EOR will tell you in advance how it bills them.

That billing question matters. Some providers accrue holiday pay and the 13th month in every monthly invoice, others bill them when paid, and some hold a deposit against them. None of these is wrong, but you need to know which one you are buying.

Absence and termination are where an EOR earns its fee, so ask for specifics rather than reassurance. Start with sick pay. A white-collar employee off sick keeps a full salary from the employer for 30 days. The 2026 change is the relapse window: an illness that returns within eight weeks is now treated as the same episode, so the employer does not start a new 30-day period. Ask whether the provider’s payroll already applies the eight-week rule.

Then ask about notice, which changed twice in 2026. For contracts starting from 1 June 2026, employer notice is capped at 52 weeks once seniority reaches 17 years. Anyone hired from 1 August 2026 onwards can be let go on a single week’s notice until the six-month mark. Ask the provider which version applies to each person it would employ for you; an answer that ignores the start date is a warning.

Beyond six months’ service, collective agreement 109 entitles the employee to ask for the concrete reasons for dismissal by registered letter. Leaving that letter unanswered for two months triggers a civil fine equal to two weeks’ pay; separately, a labour court ruling that the dismissal was manifestly unreasonable adds 3 to 17 weeks’ pay as compensation. Where notice or an indemnity reaches 30 weeks or more, outplacement must also be offered.

Ask, too, how the provider treats protected employees, such as pregnant workers or those on birth leave, before any conversation about ending a contract begins. The answer tells you whether it will slow you down at the right moments.

A provider that runs Belgian payroll every month will have a calendar of fixed dates, and asking to see it is one of the fastest checks you can make. The dates come from the law and the joint committee, so every competent provider’s calendar should look much the same, and gaps stand out.

• Before any first working day: the Dimona declaration to the ONSS, with a second Dimona when employment ends.
• Each quarter: the DmfA, which has a month’s grace after the quarter closes. The July to September 2026 return is due on 31 October 2026, and the October to December one on 31 January 2027.
• June: double holiday pay and the PC 200 annual premium. December: the 13th month. January: indexation of PC 200 salaries.
• Before 15 December: the notice naming replacement days for any public holiday that lands on a weekend or another non-working day.

The last item is a good test this autumn. This year two holidays were lost to the weekend, Assumption on a Saturday and All Saints on a Sunday, which cost a weekday employer two replacement days. Next year Assumption falls on a Sunday again, so at least one replacement day is due, and the employer’s notice for 2027 must go up by mid-December 2026. Ask the provider whether its 2027 notice is drafted, and whether your employee will receive it in a language they read.

Follow up with the annual tax slip (form 281.10) and ask who answers employees’ questions about it. Then ask how the provider handles the start of employment step by step; our walk-through of the EOR process in Belgium gives you a reference to compare its answer against.

EOR prices only compare fairly when you know what sits inside each one and when the quote was given. For reference, a Belgian hire with us costs €599 per employee per month at minimum in fees; our pricing page itemises what the fee covers. Put the same questions below to us as to anyone else.

• Do you hold a security deposit? If so, what sets its size, and when does it come back?
• If you pay in US dollars, what exchange rate and margin are used? Our minimum of €599 works out near $672; that conversion uses 1 EUR = 1.1225 USD as published by the ECB on 2 October 2026.
• Are holiday pay, the 13th month and the June premium accrued monthly or billed when paid?
• What does a departure cost in fees, separate from notice and exit holiday pay?
• Do insurance, the external prevention service and any temporary index-centimes contribution appear at cost?

Keep the fee in proportion. Our 2026 worked example, at €4,500 a month, comes to roughly €62,970 of gross pay and €78,400 of employer cost for the year, and neither figure includes a fee. Twelve months at €599 is €7,188 on top. A provider that is cheaper on the fee but wrong on holiday pay or indexation can cost more than the difference within a year.

Ask each provider to rebuild that example line by line for your own salary: if its figures for employer ONSS, holiday pay and the 13th month differ from these, find out why before you sign.

Some things are outside any EOR’s control, and a provider that claims otherwise is telling you something about itself. The clearest example is immigration. The Belgian legal employer files for the single permit, yet two governments rule on it: the region on the right to work, the federal Immigration Office on the right to stay. Nobody can guarantee the result.

Cross-border working is another. Someone employed in Belgium who works some weeks from another country may trigger that country’s social security or tax rules, and the answer depends on the facts. Expect a careful provider to ask questions rather than wave the issue away.

A good provider will also tell you when an EOR is the wrong fit. If you plan a large team, want to invoice Belgian customers directly, or need a Belgian employer of your own for permit purposes, forming an SRL (BV in Dutch) may suit you better, and the trade-offs are weighed in our EOR or SRL comparison for Belgium. Some foreign companies instead register with the ONSS themselves and pay a social secretariat to run payroll, after their tax advisers have looked at withholding and permanent establishment.

If you are still building your picture of the model itself, start with EOR explained for Belgium, then come back to this list with your shortlist.