Artists Status, step by step (P)

From 1 July 2023, it will no longer be possible to apply for an artist card or artist visa on artist@work and this both for a new application and a renewal.

- Does your artist card expire between 15 April and the end of December 2023? The Artists' Commission automatically renews it until 31/12/2023. This allows you to make benefits under the small benefits scheme until the end of the year.
- Does your artist visa expire between 1 July and the end of December 2023? The Artists' Commission will automatically extend it until 31/12/2023.
- From 1 September 2023, it will no longer be possible to apply for a ZV (self-employment certificate) on artist@work. 

We as Artists United, together with UPACT, had sent a number of practical questions and concerns to the relevant cabinets. A number of concerns were taken on board and remedied, e.g. regarding timing, regarding the new certificate :-)
 

NEW PROCEDURE:

ARTISTS COMMITTEE BECOMES ARTWORK COMMITTEE

The Artwork Commission or Committee is composed of representatives of the same organisations and departments that made up its predecessor, namely the professional arts sector, federal administrations, employers' and self-employed organisations and employees' organisations.
However, the distribution of the number of mandates per organisation will be substantially changed. From now on, the professional arts sector will always have as many mandates as all other organisations combined. This meets the arts sector's demand for better representation on the Arts Commission.
Artists United became RECOGNISED as an arts federation and may send candidates to the new Commission!

ARTWORK CERTIFICATE - NO MORE VISA, WHAT THEN?

From 1 January 2024, the artist visa will no longer exist and will be replaced by a new attestation of certification, consisting of 3 types of certificates:

Ordinary artwork attestation;

Artwork certificate "plus";

Artwork attestation "starter".

As an art worker, you formulate a general application. It is the Artwork Commission that checks which type of certificate you qualify for.

The art work certificate will be a necessary condition for accessing the various schemes in which there are specific rules for art workers. For example, if you wish to apply for an art work allowance, the requirement will be to have an art work certificate "plus" or "starter".

Extended scope of application
A certificate can be issued for artistic, artistic-technical or artistic-supporting activities.
The decisive factor is the essential contribution to an artistic creation or performance in which the artistic, artistic-technical or artistic-supporting character prevails.
In its assessment, the Artwork Committee takes into account the remuneration received and the investment of time and, where appropriate, invisible work.

More information? Contact ARtists United: info@artistsunited.be

ARCHIVE - OLD 'Status of the artist' -  no longer applicable

STEP 1 - Admissibility
salary per task
Temporary measure until 31/12/2021, extension of reference period
Alternative reference period: past professional career
Amount of the unemployment benefit fee
Abroad
Vzw (ASBL) / non-profit organisation
STEP 2 - Neutralization rule
Return to the first period
STEP 3 - Extension of the Neutralizaton Rule
STEP 4 – NAJO
STEP 5 - income NOT wages & author’s rights
STEP 6 - CUMULATION with per task salary

FYI:  There is a new artists status in the making. The explanation here below concerns still the current system.

First step is to prove your entrance to the system, which is the unemployment benefit system. For this you need to prove 312 working days (or more depending on age) in een referral period of 21 months. 
There is an alternative which will look into the 10 years before and check how many working days (as an employee) you did.
You can also use the cachet calculation. This alternative will not look at the real working days but the amount of bruto salary IF the contracts were ‘per task’
After proving this 'toelaatbaarheid'/admissibility, you are in the highest period. To avoid descending after 12 months, you can prove the so called Neutralisation rule.
-> For this at the end of the first period of the UBF (Unemployment Benefit Fee), you have to prove 156 days of which 104 artistic days at least.
The referral period for this is 18 months, counting back from the end of the 1st period of the UBF (unemployment Benefit)
So 6 months of the referral period count to prove this.  So possibly a part of the days you have to prove, you will already be able to prove.
-> As a member of Artists United we can help you with this! :-)
 

STEP 1 - Admissibility

• Everyone, artist or not, who wants to prove his admissibility must prove a number of working days (as an employee) depending on his age. KVR or independent activities do NOT count.
• If you are younger than 36, you must prove 312 days in a reference period of 21 months, between 36 and 50 you must proof 468 days in 33 months and older than 50 you have to proof 624 days in 42 months.
• You must prove those working days in that reference period of 21, 33 or 42 months before the date of your demand for an unemployment benefit fee. (For more info see also www.artistsunited.be/nl/content/statuut-uitkeringsaanhulp-vereiste-aanta...).

Artists can also prove this via a so called ‘salary per task’

• You work for a salary per task if there is no link between the number of hours worked and the salary. So the contract does not state how many hours you worked. A working day is equal to 70,86 (indexation May 2022) euro in the salary per task calculation (gross wage). So 312 days are equal to 22.108,32 € bruto salary / per task salary. 
• You can also prove a part in normal working days. For example, if you had a non-artistic job half-time during 1 year and also earned an additional 11.054,16 € in salary per task (= 156 days), you also prove 312 days.
• A 1bis contract is always per task.
• PLEASE NOTE: you can prove a maximum of 104 days on 1 month 7.369,44 (index May 2022)
  and a maximum of 156 days on 1 quarter (11.054,16 € in task wages, amount indexation May 2022)
  The calculation is based on the formula: N x 26 + 78 maximum ('N' stands for the number of months you worked in that quarter).

Temporary measure until 31/12/2021, extension of reference period
Measure applying to any demand for unemployment benefit as a full-time worker from 1 April 2021 to 31 December 2021: longer reference period
Decree of 9 June 2021 on certain unemployment measures

To be eligible for full time unemployment benefits, a worker must normally prove a period of paid work within a reference period.
This depends on the worker's age at the time of application for the benefit.
With this new measure, the reference period is extended by 12 months, so that the worker has a longer period to accumulate the required number of days of paid work.

The table thus looks as follows:

Attention! This measure is valid for every application for unemployment benefits as a full-time employee from 1 April 2021 to 31 December 2021.
Do not hesitate to apply if you think you have the necessary working days with the extended reference period.

Alternative reference periode: past professional career
A. Under 36 years old, number of working days required
312 days during 21 months prior to the application
or 468 days during 33 months prior to the application
or 624 working days during 42 months prior to the application.

B. From 36 to 49 years old, number of working days required:
468 days during 33 months prior to the application
or 624 working days during 42 months prior to the application.
Additional options:
234 days during 33 months + 1,560 days during the 10 years preceding these 33 months;
or 312 days during 33 months + for any day missing to get to 468 days, 8 days during the 10 years preceding these 33 months.

C. From 50 years, number of working days required:
624 working days during 42 months prior to the application.
Additional options:
312 days during the 42 months preceding your application and 1,560 days during the 10 years preceding these 42 months;
or 416 days during 42 months + for each day missing to get to 624 days, 8 days during the 10 years preceding these 42 months.

Amount of the unemployment benefit fee, 2 options

• if you worked with salary per task, they will look at the quarter prior to the quarter of the unemployment benefit fee application. You would need in that quarter prio to the quarter wheere you do your demand 8,264.28 euro per task salary to have the maximum benefit fee.
• If you worked for at least 4 consecutive weeks with a regular contract (not salary per task), they will look at the gross salary of that contract (of at least 4 consecutive weeks of employment). The wage taken into consideration for the calculation of the unemployment benefit fee is limited. Currently this is 2.897,58 (2022). 
• You may have worked with salary per task and then have a contract of 4 weeks consecutively. Then they will also look at this contract of 4 consecutive weeks to determine the amount of your benefit fee.

Abroad
Please note: if you were working abroad, you must then work in Belgium for 13 weeks/3 months (this used to be 1 day, but this condition has been aggravated) before being able to apply for an unemployment benefit fee.
Except if you had retained your normal residence in Belgium. For example you were a ‘frontier worker’. (You come back daily or at least weekly).

No 3 months:
A. if you have worked (and were subject to) your employment in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, while maintaining your habitual residence (also known as the "center of your interests") in Belgium:
- or you are a frontier worker, meaning: you return daily, at least weekly;
- or you are temporarily staying in the other country; you return after your employment has ended; upon return you can still have your foreign periods taken into account immediately. If you choose to apply for benefits first and look for work there, you must first exhaust your entitlement to export benefits.
B. if you were employed abroad as a seconded wage earner (since this is Belgian work in the field of social security).

Vzw (ASBL) / non-profit organisation
Beware of being a board member of a non-profit organization: you are allowed to be a board member of a non-profit organization for your own limited artistic activity. However, there is a very restrictive interpretation. We therefore advise against being a board member of a non-profit organization and only a member of the General Assembly.
Artists United has pleaded for some time to abandon this restrictive interpretation and to make it possible for artists to sit on the board of directors a an artistic non-profit organization.

STEP 2 - Neutralization rule

• Prove the Neutralization Rule (often referred to as the Artists Status).
• The unemployment benefit fee is organized in periods. The first period lasts 12 months. (This first period is subdivided into 3 subphases with a slight decrease in the amount).
• The unemployment benefit fee then descends to the second period, during which the decrease in the fee is greater. Because the legislator realized that artists work in a difficult labor market characterized by short commissions, projects and calm periods, the Benefit Rule was introduced.
• If at the end of your first 12-month period you can prove that you worked 156 days in the past 18 months (of which at least 104 were artistic - yes, you can also use 52 non-artistic days), your first period will be extended with 12 months. In other words, you do not descend into the second period and your benefit fee does not descend.
• 156 days or 11.054,16 € via the salary per task calculation.

Have you descended to the second period? Return to the first period
you can return to the first period. The parameter is the same as for the Benefit Rule: Proving 156 days (of which at least 104 are artistic). Then you return to the first period. At the end of that first period you can try again to prove the Benefit Rule.

STEP 3 - Extension of the Neutralizaton Rule

Extension of the Benefit Rule / Neutralization Rule: you can extend the Benefit Rule with 3 artistic performances / days. If at the end of the previously extended period (see step 2) you can prove that you have done at least 3 artistic days / performances, your period will be extended again by 12 months.
This can be extended year after year.

STEP 4 – NAJO

•  Protection against NAJO, non-artistic job offer: The entire Unemployment Benefit fee system is aimed at redirecting people back to work. The only protection against a NAJO is to prove that at the moment that VDAB or Actiris offers you a non-artistic job, you have worked 156 days in the past 18 months (of which at least 104 are artistic).
• If, on average, you worked 8.6 days every month or earned 552,76 (indexation September 2021) euro salary per task on average per month, you can never be obliged to accept a NAJO.

What if I also do non-artistic work?

• Suppose that you would only do artistic assignments, you should earn an average of 609,40 € (indexation May 2022) in salary per task/gross wage per month in order to never have to accept an NAJO.
• This corresponds to an average of 8.6 working days per month (and x 18 is 156 days).
• You also do non-artistic jobs and can use a maximum of 52 days. That means that if you prove 52 non-artistic days, you still have to prove 104 artistic days. That is an average of 5.8 days a month or in a wage of € 410,99 gross wage + an average of 3 non-artistic days per month, which together gives 156 days (of which at least 104 artistic).

STEP 5 - income NOT wages & author’s rights

Beware with income not equal to wage such as income as an independent worker. That can cause your benefit fee to descend or even to have to pay back your benefit fee.

STEP 6 - CUMULATION with per task salary
If you are already entitled to an UBF (Unemployment Benefit Fee) / have the 'artist status', be careful with the cumulation calculation (art. 48bis). This cumulation calculation uses a very unfortunate parameter amount: the amount is lower than a normal sector wage!
You can keep in check the consequences of the cumulation calculation yourself by looking for a balance between gross salary and expenses (and the number of days that you indicate for this assignment).

If your gross per task salary is at least equal to or more than 70,86 (index 01/05/2022), you prove at least 1 day in the 'artists status'.
The parameter for the cumulative calculation is 106,29 € (index 01/05/2022). The calculation is however more complicated and more advantageous than stating that if you have more than 106,29 € per day of per task salary, your UBF will be affected:

• Only from 212,58 € gross wage per day you lose a day because only then the result of this calculation is equal to or higher than 1
• Only from more than 318,86 € on 2 days you lose a day
• Only from more than € 425,15 on 3 days will you lose a day, 
• etc
• The result of the calculation for the quarter is always rounded down
• The result of the quarterly calculation is limited to 156 calendar days, excluding Sundays

Formula & examples
[YA - (C x Y )/Y
YA: gross salary for the activity that is subject to the NSSO
C: number of activity days mentioned on the control card as a result of the employment contract or the activity subject to social security
Y: 106,29 (index 01/05/2022)

Example 1: You worked 1 day for which you earned 200 € gross.  You subject that income to social security (article 1bis). You have deleted 1 working day on your control card. That fee corresponds to a non-reimbursable calendar period calculated as follows:
[180-(1 x 106,29) / 106,29 = 0.88 days, rounded off to 0 days
The non-reimbursable period is therefore 0 days

Example 2: You worked 1 day for which you earned €250 gross.  On your control card you have deleted 1 working day. That fee corresponds to an unreimbursable calendar period calculated as follows:
[200-(1 x 106,29) / 106,29 = 1.35 days, rounded up to 1 day
The non-reimbursable period is therefore 1 day

Example 3: You worked 2 days for which you earned €400 gross.  On your control card you have deleted 2 working days.
That fee corresponds to an unreimbursable calendar period calculated as follows:
[400-(2 x 106,29)] / 106,29 = 1,76 days, rounded off to 1 day
The non-reimbursable period is therefore 1 day

The more expenses, the higher the net amount (which reduces the gross pay) .
Conversely: The higher the gross salary/task, the lower the net amount, but the more days you prove in the 'Artists status'. 
- For example, when you still have to prove your benefit rule;
- the more days you prove, the easier you can protect yourself against a NAJA, non-artistic job offer where the parameter is 156 days (of which at least 104 are artistic) which you have to be able to prove every time when a non-artistic job offer is made. The VDAB is clearly working on a more active follow-up of artists with regard to this rule these last months and weeks.

So it is often a matter of finding a balance for you as an artist between proving sufficient working days (and thus sufficient bruto salary) and between having sufficient net amount left over. Within the legal and fiscal possibilities, you can choose whether or not to fill in the kilometres under 'kilometre compensation'. Likewise, one can or cannot opt for a meal allowance for each day if indicated. These things increase the net amount and decrease the gross amount. 
Depending on your situation and the objective to be achieved (e.g. in connection with the 'artists status'), you are therefore co-pilot of the assignment you enter and you can make a number of choices.
DO bear in mind that the lower the gross salary, the less social contributions you make. This can have an impact on your social security such as your status and pension.

Questions? No problem, we are happy to help you further, contact us