Belgium further adjusts its copyright tax regime
Two recent laws bring important changes, both applicable to income paid or attributed as from 1 January 2026
1. Program Law of 30 May 2026
The favourable lump-sum expense deduction for copyright and neighbouring rights income is now restricted to taxpayers holding a valid Arts Work Certificate (attestation du travail des arts / kunstwerkattest).
This arts work certificate is only available to authors and artists who can demonstrate professional artistic practice in the arts. It can be obtained from the Arts Work Commission. In assessing whether an artistic practice qualifies, the Commission will only take into account activities carried out within the following artistic fields, namely audiovisual arts, visual arts, music, literature, performing arts, theatre, choreography, and comic art.
2. Personal Income Tax Reform Act adopted on 9 July 2026
Computer programs are explicitly included within the copyright tax regime, through an amendment to Article 17, §1, 5° CIR92.
What should you consider to actually benefit from the regime? Being back in scope is not enough – the benefit must be properly structured and documented:
- A written assignment or licence agreement transferring the rights in the works to the company or client, for public communication or reproduction, with a clear contractual split between professional remuneration (e.g. for maintenance, testing...) and copyright remuneration. Copyright income may not replace existing salary or benefits – converted amounts are requalified as salary.
- A defensible valuation of the copyright remuneration, reflecting the economic value of the rights and respecting the statutory limits: the absolute ceiling (EUR 77,220 for income year 2026) and the 30/70 relative cap where rights are transferred together with services. Over-allocation to copyright income is a key audit trigger.
- Evidence that the art works and software (object and source code, but also preparatory materials) are original in the sense of copyright law and effectively exploited. Routine coding or purely functionally dictated work may not qualify.
- The “communication to the public” / “reproduction” condition remains the main uncertainty for bespoke or internally used software; scalability and reuse across clients reduce the risk.
For material or recurring arrangements, an advance tax ruling remains the safest route to certainty.
In short: the scope of the regime has been broadened to include software as was the case before its exclusion as from 2023, while access to the favourable flat-rate expense deduction has been narrowed. The interaction of these two reforms will require careful assessment by creators, software developers, and businesses alike.