Accountable offers a guarantee on every tax declaration in Belgium.
This guarantee means that:
We help you answer any question you receive from the Tax Authorities.
We cover fines caused by an error attributable to Accountable, up to €500 (Bookkeeping, Taxes and legacy plans) or €10,000 (Max and legacy Max plans) per declaration, excluding fraud and late filing.
Please note that this article provides general guidance only. Tax rules may vary depending on your individual situation. When in doubt, ask your Tax Coach.
This article explains who qualifies for the guarantee, what it covers, what remains your responsibility, which cases are excluded, how to claim the guarantee, and answers the most common questions.
👍 Who gets the guarantee?
All tax declarations are guaranteed by default if they are submitted by:
any user with a valid Belgian enterprise number who is on a paid plan (Bookkeeping, Taxes, Max or a legacy plan) at the time of submission
any accountant who submits the declaration in Accountable for a client who meets the same criteria
✅ What does the guarantee cover?
Accountable reimburses the fines and penalties you would not have had to pay without an error attributable to Accountable, once you have paid them to the Tax Authorities. The cap is €500 per declaration on the Bookkeeping, Taxes and legacy plans, and €10,000 per declaration on the Max and legacy Max plans.
The guarantee covers:
errors attributable to Accountable: calculation errors, incorrectly encoded tax rules and software errors
AI review errors when reading objective data from a document: amount, date, VAT amount, VAT rate, counterparty and document type
clerical errors you make in good faith when entering objective data (amount, date, VAT rate or VAT amount, counterparty), as long as Accountable did not display any warning or error about that data before the declaration was submitted
In Belgium, the guarantee applies to your VAT returns, intracom listings, annual client listings and part 2 of your income tax declaration. Part 1 of the income tax declaration is not handled by Accountable, so it is not covered.
You act in good faith when, based on what you know at the time, you are convinced that the information you enter is true, complete and consistent, and you use Accountable with reasonable attention while following its instructions.
If you made a mistake, Accountable also relies on the Tax Authorities to determine whether the guarantee applies:
Tax Authorities decide the error was not made with the intention of evading taxes: only non-proportional fines can be issued, and these are covered by the guarantee.
Tax Authorities decide the error was made with the intention of evading taxes: proportional fines can be issued, and these are not covered by the guarantee.
ℹ️ What remains your responsibility, including with AI review?
You remain responsible for the accuracy, completeness and professional nature of all the data in your account, including data created, completed or marked as reviewed by AI review. AI review is an assistance tool: it does not replace your own check.
The guarantee does not cover errors about facts only you know, even when AI review suggested the data:
the professional or private nature of an expense
the professional share of a mixed-use expense
the existence and completeness of your income
Before each declaration is submitted, you confirm in Accountable that you have reviewed all the items it includes, including those showing Marked as reviewed by AI. From that confirmation, this data counts as provided and validated by you. Turning the Allow AI review setting (in the AI documents review section of your settings) on or off does not change what the guarantee covers.
Expense categories: a wrong category is covered, as long as the error is not about the professional or private nature of the expense or its professional share. Custom categories and custom settings (created or changed by you or your accountant, including a custom deductible percentage) are your responsibility and are not covered. Accountable remains responsible for applying those settings correctly in its calculations, and for the categories it provides.
🚫 Which cases are not covered by the guarantee?
The guarantee does not cover:
newly calculated or additional taxes decided by the Tax Authorities, for example after a tax audit
penalties for fraud and tax evasion
interest on taxes, and fines or penalties due to late payment
fines issued after the guarantee validity period (365 days after submission)
discrepancies between the income tax estimates provided by Accountable and the actual amount due to the tax office (Accountable does not handle part 1 of the income tax declaration)
fines due to incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information provided by you or by someone acting on your behalf, such as your accountant, except the good-faith clerical errors described above
fines due to gross negligence, deliberate misrepresentation, fraud or other illegal activities
The guarantee also does not apply in the following cases:
You willingly committed fraud, as determined by the Tax Authorities, during the period covered by the declaration.
You filed your declaration late or did not file it. Filing on time is your responsibility, unless a bug in Accountable prevented the submission.
You ignored a warning displayed in Accountable (for example "usually personal expense" or a possible duplicate), or you entered or changed data after Accountable displayed a warning or error about it.
You did not follow the instructions in Accountable, or did not fix the errors it flagged.
You submitted documents that are falsified, belong to someone else, or relate to clearly private expenses.
Your account shows repeated non-professional entries, or you use Accountable in a way that clearly departs from normal use by a self-employed professional. In this case, Accountable may suspend the guarantee after notifying you.
The error comes from a custom category or custom category settings.
You were ever asked by the Tax Authorities to pay a fine for fraud, or had your revenue corrected by the Tax Office, in any period prior to the submission.
You belong to one of the following special tax regimes: mixed VAT, margin VAT, or agriculture.
👉 How do you claim the guarantee?
If you receive a letter from the Tax Authorities about a declaration made with Accountable, here is what to do:
1. Let us know within 30 days
Contact us in the chat or at support@accountable.eu within 30 days of receiving the letter.
2. Send us the full file
Share all correspondence with the Tax Authorities, a copy of the declaration as filed, proof that you paid the fine, and any other information we reasonably need to review your case.
3. Take the corrective steps we ask for
If needed, for example by filing an amended declaration, take the steps we ask for to limit any further fines.
Accountable reimburses the fine once you have paid it to the Tax Authorities.
💬 Frequently asked questions
Can you give 5 examples of fines people would receive and how the guarantee would apply?
Accountable covers fines due to errors attributable to Accountable, and fines due to clerical errors you made in good faith on objective data while carefully saving invoices and receipts in Accountable.
Here are some practical examples and how the guarantee applies in each case:
Wrong VAT % on a sales invoice made in Accountable. This typically triggers a fine. Accountable pays it, as long as it is not fraudulent.
Wrong invoice number on a sales invoice. This typically triggers a fine. Accountable pays it, as long as it is not fraudulent.
Wrong amount saved in Accountable. This error may trigger a fine or a recalculation of taxes. If there is a fine, your encoding was done in good faith and Accountable did not display any warning about that amount before submission, Accountable pays it.
Wrong expense category. This might trigger a fine or a tax recalculation. If there is a fine, Accountable pays it as long as the error is not about the professional or private nature of the expense or its professional share, and the category is not a custom category.
Wrong VAT % on an expense. This might trigger a fine or a tax recalculation. If there is a fine, the mistake was made in good faith and no warning was displayed before submission, Accountable pays it.
What happens if there is a tax audit on a guaranteed declaration?
The guarantee is valid for 365 days after submission. If the Tax Office initiates an audit or raises a question after this period, the guarantee is no longer valid. In that case, our support team is ready to help you as it does for any other case.
If the Tax Office initiates an audit within 365 days, Accountable pays the fines relating to that declaration that are covered by the guarantee. Additional taxes, fraud and late filing remain excluded.
The tax office asked me to pay 2,000€ more than Accountable calculated. Will Accountable pay that difference?
No. The tax declaration is guaranteed, not the amount the Tax Authorities ask you to pay. If, after verification, they ask you to pay additional taxes, the guarantee does not cover those. The guarantee covers fines that the Tax Authorities issue to you.
That said, such cases are very unlikely, as Accountable computes the amount to pay together with the tax declaration.
I thought you already guaranteed that the computations were correct. What is the difference between this and a normal customer support policy?
The Tax Declaration Guarantee is unlike any customer support policy, however progressive, for the following reasons:
Most customer support policies limit their scope to direct software issues such as bugs. The Tax Declaration Guarantee guarantees the outcome of your declaration, regardless of potential bugs or software issues.
Most customer support policies consist of refunds. The Tax Declaration Guarantee is not limited by the amount of your subscription: the maximum liability is €500 or €10,000 per declaration, depending on your plan.
Finally, the Tax Declaration Guarantee is part of the Terms and Conditions of Accountable. As a user of Accountable, the Guarantee is therefore part of your rights (provided you are eligible). It cannot be overridden by decisions made by the Accountable Support team.
The Guarantee is a pledge that your declaration made in Accountable is correct. Accountable makes this pledge to give you the peace of mind you deserve as a self-employed professional.
Is the guarantee valid if my taxes were submitted by my accountant using Accountable?
Yes, the declaration stays covered. The information your accountant enters in Accountable counts as your own, so the same rules apply: inaccurate information and errors about facts within your knowledge are not covered, but good-faith clerical errors on objective data stay covered.
What happens if I stop my paid subscription?
The guarantee is valid for 365 days after submission, regardless of whether you are on a paid plan or not. When you cancel your subscription, you give up the guarantee on tax declarations submitted after your subscription end date.
What counts as fraud? Does an honest mistake count?
Accountable relies on the Tax Authorities' decision to assess whether an error is fraudulent or not. An honest mistake is not fraud: clerical errors made in good faith on objective data are covered, as long as no warning was displayed before submission.
If the error is not deemed fraudulent, Accountable pays the fines relating to that declaration, within the limits and exclusions described in this article.
Does AI review change what the guarantee covers?
No. Turning AI review on or off does not change the scope of the guarantee. AI review errors when reading objective data from a document are covered, but you still need to review all items before each submission, including those showing Marked as reviewed by AI.
If I forget a document and include it in the next period, am I still covered?
If the Tax Authorities issue a fine for that specific reason, it will not be covered. In most cases, the Tax Authorities will not issue a fine for such an event. If they do, our support team is ready to help you as it does for any other case.
I got a late fee fine of €5 once. Does that mean I am not eligible?
No. It simply means you do not get a guarantee on the specific declaration you submitted late. Your next declaration is covered.
I just got a fine for submitting my declaration late. I used Accountable. Is it covered by the guarantee?
Filing on time is your responsibility, so the guarantee does not cover fines for late submission, unless a bug in Accountable prevented you from submitting on time. Accountable does everything possible to help you avoid missing deadlines: for each submission deadline, Accountable sends you up to 2 notifications, 2 emails, and 1 SMS. If you receive such a fine and believe Accountable did not deliver on that promise, share a copy of your fine with our Customer Success team and we will do our best to help you.
The tax office corrected my income tax declaration once. Does that mean I am not eligible?
If you have ever received a correction for your income tax declaration or were convicted of fraud by the Tax Authorities, you are not eligible for the guarantee.
If that is not the case, you are good to go.
What do mixed VAT and margin VAT exactly mean?
Those terms refer to the following statuses in Belgium, as described by the Tax Authorities:
Does the guarantee cover all my taxes? Including VAT, trade tax, income tax, wage, and property tax?
In Belgium, the guarantee covers VAT returns, intracom listings, client listings and part 2 of the income tax declaration. Part 1 of the income tax declaration is not handled by Accountable. Other taxes, such as wage or property tax, are not covered.
Key takeaways
The Tax Declaration Guarantee is included by default for users with a valid Belgian enterprise number on a paid plan (Bookkeeping, Taxes, Max or a legacy plan) at the time of submission.
It covers fines caused by errors attributable to Accountable, up to €500 (Bookkeeping, Taxes and legacy plans) or €10,000 (Max and legacy Max plans) per declaration, excluding fraud and late filing.
Facts only you know (professional nature of an expense, professional share, income) remain your responsibility, even when AI review suggested the data.
The guarantee is valid for 365 days after submission. To claim it, contact us within 30 days of receiving the letter from the Tax Authorities.
In Belgium, it covers VAT returns, intracom listings, client listings and part 2 of the income tax declaration. Additional taxes after a tax audit are not covered.
Need help? Chat with us or email support@accountable.eu, we're happy to help.