€550 per day sounds expensive. Here is what it actually means for a Belgian company.

The question sounds simple and almost never gets a complete answer. A daily rate is not a cost, and a gross salary is not a cost either. Here is the full structure for 2026 in Belgium.

The four cost layers

• Direct remuneration: gross salary or invoiced fees.
• Legal on costs: employer social contributions, holiday pay, end of year bonus.
• Package and equipment: car, fuel or charging card, meal vouchers, insurance, laptop, licences.
• Administration and risk: payroll, insurance certificates, absence, notice, compliance.

Employee on payroll

Take a gross salary of 5 500 EUR per month under CP200. Employer contributions of about 25% add roughly 1 375 EUR per month. Holiday pay and the end of year bonus add close to 1.5 additional months of salary spread over the year. Total legal cost is around 8 500 EUR per month, or about 102 000 EUR per year, before any benefit or equipment.

Freelance and daily rate

A freelance consultant at 550 EUR per day invoicing 220 days costs 121 000 EUR per year, with no employer contributions and no absence risk. The trade off is availability, the absence of exclusivity, and the false self employment risk if the working relationship looks like an employment contract.

Umbrella payroll

With BSH the consultant is our employee under CP200 and you receive one monthly invoice covering remuneration, contributions, benefits, insurance and administration. You keep project flexibility, you carry no payroll function, and your accounting sees one fully deductible service line.

How to build your budget

• Start from the net the consultant needs, not from the gross.
• Add the legal on costs of the chosen structure.
• Price the package items you want to offer, since several of them are cheaper than salary for the same net effect.
• Add an administration and risk provision of 5% to 10% for a direct contract.
• Compare structures on total annual cost for the same net, not on gross versus daily rate.