Career slashing: can you combine several activities as a freelancer?

Dog trainer and translator, house painter and tourist guide… Career slashing is the art of combining professional activities that are sometimes worlds apart. Can you do this when you’re self-employed? What are the implications for your accounting and social security contributions? If you’re self-employed in Belgium and want to diversify your activity, this article is for you.

Career slashing: choosing to do ‘more’

‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Our grandparents probably didn’t imagine that you could become a self-employed accountant and a home chef. Their generation had a certain tendency to prioritise stability above all else.

Younger generations, on the other hand, are often looking to find meaning and flexibility in their work. And career slashing is one of the ways they’re achieving that. Like Alina, the ‘translator / private tutor / founder of an e-commerce site’ or Bastien, the ‘web developer / home pastry chef’. These career slashers have decided to combine different professions.

Career slashing is therefore a way of life that is chosen consciously, unlike the situation of those forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

But the question here is: can a self-employed sole trader in Belgium carry out different professions? The answer is: yes! However, this choice will have consequences for your accounting and your admin. What does that mean in practice? Let us explain.

💡 This article focuses on freelancers who have multiple activities. Another way to be a career slasher is to be an employee in one profession and self-employed in a completely different secondary occupation. 

Multiple activities, one business

So, it’s entirely possible to carry out several activities under a single sole proprietorship. The only condition is that you have to define several NACEBEL codes for your business.

In Belgium, each economic activity corresponds to one or more NACEBEL code(s). These codes are useful for the authorities for statistical purposes, but they’re also important for you! They determine your rights to support and subsidies according to your sector, and they determine any obligations you might have. That’s right, some activities come with requirements that need to be met, such as professional qualifications, permits, insurance, etc.

Let’s take a concrete example: Ilias is a hairdresser during the day, but devotes a few evenings a week to his graphic design activity. He declares at least two NACEBEL codes: ‘74103 – Graphic design activities’ and ‘96021 – Hairdressing’. While he can work as a graphic designer without any particular qualifications, he must have a diploma or be able to prove his experience to work as a hairdresser.

For more information on NACEBEL codes, see our full article on the subject.

Adding an activity along the way

What about adding an activity to your business at some point? You can! Even several years after starting your business. If you do this, you’ll of course have to add the corresponding NACEBEL code(s) to your activity.

Adding one or more NACEBEL codes (in the same request) costs €105.50 (in 2024) per establishment unit or address.

💡 Accountable tip: Since you can choose several NACEBEL codes when setting up your business and need to pay to add extra ones, it’s better to choose too many NACEBEL codes than to limit yourself. Let’s imagine that Ilias, ‘graphic designer / hairdresser’, plans to help his clients with web development in the future. He can anticipate this and mention the code ‘62010 – Computer Programming’ when setting up his business, even if he’s not yet sure if he’ll offer this service.

What does all this mean for your accounting?

Even if you combine different activities, you still have one single VAT number. This one number groups together all your professional activities. To avoid getting mixed up, it’s crucial to keep clear accounts for each activity.

In practice, here are the points to keep in mind:

• The VAT rate may be different or not applicable depending on the nature of your activities. For example, the VAT rate for writing web content is 21% while it’s 0% for certain socio-cultural activities, like being a guide.
• In your tax return when you’re self-employed in a main occupation, you may have to fill in different boxes depending on your area of activity. For example, let’s say you are a dentist, and in addition to this activity you run a web shop with dog supplies. You then need to fill in the section for liberal professions for your activity as a dentist and the section for commercial activities for your webshop.

💰 Important to know: as a natural person sole trader, the calculation of your taxes and social security contributions takes into account all your self-employed income. In other words, both the tax authorities and social insurance funds look at your various sources of income as a whole.

💡 Accountable tip: As you can see, career slashing complicates your accounting and taxes a little. But rest assured, it’s far from insurmountable. In the Accountable app, you can indicate different VAT rates on the same invoice, for example. The app also adds up your income and automatically calculates the final amount of taxes due.

Career slashing with a company

Career slashing isn’t reserved for sole traders. If you have a company, you can also combine as many activities as you wish or add an activity to an existing company. In the latter case, you’ll have to modify the statutes of the company and, more particularly, the activities carried out (i.e. the company’s purpose). So here too, think ahead and stay broad, because you can only carry out the activities indicated. With a little forethought, you avoid having to make changes in the future.

There you have it, you’re up to speed on the ins and outs of becoming a real career slasher. Do you have questions? Accountable’s tax coaches will give you an answer tailored to your individual situation. Plus, our app ensures transparent accounting and accurate tax returns. Try it for free today.