Do you invoice your copyright income through Creative Shelter? Creative Shelter takes care of the tax, legal and administrative follow-up of your copyright, and your invoices arrive automatically in Accountable. Two things remain for you to do: indicate whether or not you hold an Arts Certificate, and check your Creative Shelter invoices in your Revenue. This article explains how, and what the impact is on your tax return.
To understand the rules around copyright, read our article about copyright in Belgium.
The Arts Certificate is not required to invoice through Creative Shelter. From the 2026 income year onwards, flat-rate expenses on copyright income are, however, reserved for holders of an Arts Work Attestation of the ordinary or plus type, called « Arts Certificate » in Accountable, and only for the covered activity. Without the attestation, flat-rate expenses no longer apply, which may increase the tax on this income.
🚨 To ensure that the withholding tax is calculated correctly in your tax return, indicate in Accountable whether or not you hold an Arts Certificate. Make this setting from the web version.
Where and how can I indicate whether or not I hold an Arts Certificate?
➡️ You must do this in Settings > Taxes.
1️⃣ You do not have an Arts Certificate ❌ :
Answer "No" to the question: "As of 2026, copyright income needs an arts certificate for lump sum deductions. Do you have one?" and then click Save to apply the change.
2️⃣ You do have an Arts Certificate ✅ :
Answer "Yes" to the question: "As of 2026, copyright income needs an arts certificate for lump sum deductions. Do you have one?"
⚠️ Don't forget to answer the question: "What is the validity period of your Arts Certificate?" and then click Save to apply the change.
➡️ Once these steps are complete, your account will be correctly configured and flat-rate expenses will be applied or not, depending on your situation.
A. How your Creative Shelter invoices arrive in Accountable
With Creative Shelter, you are not the one who issues the invoice: it is Creative Shelter, your client, who draws it up in your name. This is called self-billing. On those invoices, Creative Shelter appears as the client and you as the service provider.
These invoices are delivered to you via Peppol, the Belgian network for electronic invoicing. They arrive automatically in the Revenue section of your Accountable account, provided that you are registered on the Peppol network via Accountable. Once that registration is done, you do not need to import or set up anything.
⚠️ Like any invoice you receive via Peppol, a self-billed invoice arrives with the Peppol provider you're registered with to receive invoices. To receive your Creative Shelter invoices in Accountable, you therefore need to be registered on Peppol via Accountable. Not done yet? Follow the steps in the article How to register on the Peppol network.
💡 You no longer need to set up an email transfer in your Creative Shelter account. Your invoices arrive in Accountable via Peppol.
B. Finalize the encoding of your invoice
The invoice to find in your Revenue is the one Creative Shelter draws up in your name, with Creative Shelter as the client. The invoice Creative Shelter addresses to your end client is not your accounting concern: you must not encode it in Accountable.
1/ Find the invoice received via Peppol in the Revenue section
2/ Check the invoice encoding and adapt if necessary
The system will automatically split the invoice into two items:
1st item: sales of services at 21% VAT
→ When encoding, check the amount and the VAT rate on the invoice to make sure they match.
→ The category is "sales of services".
2nd item: Copyright income with 6% VAT
→ When encoding, check the amount and the VAT rate on the invoice to make sure they match.
→ The category is "copyright revenue".
💡 The customer to register / select is Creative Shelter and not your customer.
🚨Please check amounts, VAT rates and income category.🚨
C/ Tax impact
ℹ️ The amounts shown in Accountable may differ from those reported on your 281.45 tax form.
This is normal: Creative Shelter, who issues this form, assigns each invoice to the fiscal year based on its payment date, whereas Accountable uses the booking date (the invoice date).
The difference only concerns the year in which the income is recognised, not the total amount.
You should therefore declare the amounts shown on your 281.45 form. And no need to worry if there is a difference: any amount not included this year will simply appear on next year's 281.45 form.
In the Taxes screen > Income tax submission, point 9 "review", you will find the amounts from your invoice separated into two sections: one for sales of services and one for copyright revenue:
In the screenshot below, you will find in purple the amount of €552 corresponding to the sale of services in box XVII - 1600.
In green, you will find the copyright income section with:
→ in box VII - 1123: the gross amount of copyright revenue
→ in box VII - 1124: Expenses (fixed)
→ in box VII - 1119: the amount of withholding tax.
💡 Accountable separates the two revenue categories (services & copyright).
Key takeaways
The Arts Certificate is not required to invoice through Creative Shelter, but it determines your flat-rate expenses from the 2026 income year onwards. Indicate in Settings > Taxes whether you hold one.
Creative Shelter draws up your invoices in your name (self-billing) and delivers them to you via Peppol. If you are registered on Peppol via Accountable, they arrive automatically in your Revenue.
Each Creative Shelter invoice contains two items: sales of services at 21% VAT and copyright income at 6% VAT. Check that the amounts, VAT rates and categories match the invoice.
The tax impact is visible in Accountable under Taxes > Income tax submission, point 9 "review".
Need help? Chat with us or email support@accountable.eu, we're happy to help.