The essence of the regime is that, subject to certain conditions, remuneration received for the transfer or licensing of copyright is taxed as investment income rather than professional income.

This results in a significantly more favourable tax rate: withholding tax on investment income of 15%, compared with the progressive personal income tax rates that apply to ordinary professional income.

To benefit from the favourable regime, it must first be established that the work is protected by copyright.

A work qualifies only if it is the author’s own intellectual creation and is sufficiently original. It must result from the author’s free and creative choices.

Ideas, concepts or purely technical executions are not, in themselves, protected by copyright. There must be a concrete expression of a creative concept.

Moreover, it is not enough for a work to be protected by copyright. There must also be an effective transfer or licensing of copyright.

The remuneration must therefore be directly linked to the transfer of the economic rights in the work.

A mere reference in an employment agreement, management agreement or collaboration agreement, without a genuine transfer of rights, is insufficient.

In practice, the documentation must clearly identify which rights are transferred, the works to which the transfer relates and how the remuneration was determined.

A third fundamental principle is the existence of economic exploitation.

The copyright-protected work must be created with a view to its effective use or exploitation by the party acquiring the rights.

This economic or public dimension is currently one of the main points of attention.

Substantiating the copyright remuneration is also an essential part of the regime.

Companies must be able to demonstrate how the remuneration was calculated. It may not be determined arbitrarily and must always be economically justified and in line with market conditions.

Works used exclusively for internal purposes, without any form of exploitation, often have more difficulty qualifying under the regime. The tax authorities expect the transferred rights to have genuine economic value for the company receiving them.

An important principle is that only a limited portion of the total remuneration may be paid as copyright remuneration when professional services are performed at the same time.

In that case, a relative limit applies: no more than 30% of the total remuneration may be allocated as copyright remuneration. The remaining 70% must be treated as remuneration for the services provided and is taxed under the ordinary personal or corporate income tax rules.

In addition to this relative limit, an absolute annual ceiling also applies. Income above that ceiling loses its classification as investment income and is taxed as professional income. The legislator’s aim is to prevent very high remuneration from benefiting entirely from the favourable regime. The assessment also takes historical income into account, as well as the reclassification rules intended to prevent income from being shifted artificially between different years.

Substantiating the remuneration is also an essential part of the regime. Companies must be able to demonstrate how the copyright remuneration was calculated. In practice, this is often done by analysing the time spent on creative activities, comparing the amount with market guidelines or calculating it on the basis of the economic value of the exploitation. The remuneration may never be determined arbitrarily and must always be defensible before the tax authorities.

The same fundamental principles apply to employees, self-employed professionals and company directors, although their practical implementation often differs. Employers applying the regime within a remuneration structure must have proper contractual documentation and a sufficiently detailed description of the creative activities. Self-employed professionals and directors must, in turn, be able to demonstrate that they genuinely create copyright-protected works and that the remuneration received corresponds to the rights transferred.

From income year 2026, the scope has once again been extended to software development and certain IT creations. Software developers may therefore qualify for the regime again, provided they meet the same fundamental conditions as other authors. However, not every IT activity automatically qualifies. Purely technical work, routine programming or solely operational IT assignments remain excluded. Only original software creations involving genuine exploitation and a transfer of rights may potentially fall within the favourable regime.

An important change from income year 2026 concerns the lump-sum expense deduction under the copyright tax regime. Traditionally, taxpayers receiving copyright royalties could apply a statutory lump-sum expense deduction, meaning that only part of the copyright remuneration received was effectively taxable. This further reduced the tax burden.

However, the legislator has decided to restrict this lump-sum expense deduction to authors who hold a valid arts worker certificate. From income year 2026, authors without such a certificate will, in principle, no longer be able to claim this deduction. They will retain the option of substantiating their actual professional expenses, but will lose the benefit of the automatic lump-sum deduction. As a result, the taxable base will increase for many authors, making the regime less advantageous in practice than before. Although the classification as investment income and the separate tax rate remain in place, the net tax benefit will therefore be reduced for a significant group of taxpayers.

On 3 September 2026, the Belgian Ruling Commission published additional clarifications regarding the inclusion of computer programs within the copyright tax regime from 1 January 2026.

The Ruling Commission confirms that software may once again fall within the scope of the regime, but emphasises that not every software developer is automatically entitled to the favourable tax treatment.

First, the Ruling Commission expressly confirms that computer programs may once again qualify for the copyright tax regime from 1 January 2026. This ends the uncertainty that had existed since the 2022 reform regarding the tax treatment of software development. At the same time, the tax authorities clarify that bringing software back within scope does not automatically mean that every case will be approved.

The Ruling Commission also confirms that each ruling application will be assessed individually. There will therefore be no blanket approval for the entire IT sector. Each case will be examined separately on the basis of its specific facts and circumstances, with particular attention to the nature of the activities and the economic reality of the proposed copyright remuneration.

The Ruling Commission also emphasises that copyright protection alone is insufficient to apply the regime. The assessment will consider, among other things:

• the nature and originality of the works concerned;
• the effective transfer or licensing of the copyright;
• the exploitation or actual use of those rights;
• the economic value of the copyright remuneration received.

In other words, the fact that software is protected by copyright under the Belgian Code of Economic Law is not enough. The taxpayer must also demonstrate that the rights are actually exploited and that the remuneration is an economically justified consideration for the transfer or licensing of those rights.

A particular point of attention is the valuation of copyright remuneration in the IT sector. The Ruling Commission expressly states that valuation methods used in other creative sectors cannot automatically be applied to software developers. Each remuneration must reflect the economic reality of the specific case. Companies will therefore need to document and substantiate their calculation method carefully.

Finally, the Ruling Commission’s communication also contains a positive signal for companies currently preparing a ruling application. Advance decisions issued no later than 30 June 2027 may still relate to copyright remuneration granted from 1 January 2026, provided that all statutory conditions are met. This gives taxpayers seeking validation of their copyright remuneration scheme by the Ruling Commission additional legal certainty.

These clarifications confirm that the IT sector once again has access to the copyright tax regime, while also making clear that the tax authorities will continue to carry out a thorough substantive assessment. Proper contractual documentation, a realistic valuation, demonstrable exploitation of the software and a strong legal basis therefore remain essential for successful application of the regime.