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Starting as a lawyer
Before you become a trainee lawyer
Your obligations
Your obligations as a trainee lawyer or self-employed person
As a trainee lawyer you work under the same statute as an independent lawyer. You are performing an independent profession and must take care of the same obligations.
First of all, you need a company number . To do this, you need to register in the CBC register of the Crossroads Bank for Companies. As a trainee lawyer or an independent lawyer you are liable to pay VAT. You must activate this number separately. Finally, you are legally obliged to join a recognised social insurance fund such as Acerta. You can arrange all of this yourself, or have it taken care of by Acerta's enterprise office. In addition, we will activate your VAT number for you free of charge (worth 78,65 euros).
What does a social insurance fund do?
Based on your status and income , your social insurance fund will calculate how much social security contributions you have to pay to the government every quarter through them. In exchange for your contribution, your social security such as health insurance, pension accrual and child benefit rights are guaranteed. Good to know: at Acerta you pay the lowest administrative cost on the market! This way you save a lot of money over your entire career.
Your personal rainy day fund
Your personal rainy day fund
Your pension? As a trainee lawyer, that's probably a long way off. And yet: after a career as a lawyer, you probably want to maintain the same standard of living in your old age.
With a (Social) VSPSS (Voluntary Supplementary Pension Scheme for the Self-Employed) you will save for later, and you benefit today because your social contributions will become less. Double win!
In addition, guaranteed income insurance is not a superfluous luxury. Are you unable to work for a longer period of time due to illness or an accident ? Thanks to this insurance you will receive an extra monthly paymentin addition to the payment from the health insurance fund. You can surely use these to keep paying all your ongoing expenses.
Don't delay your professional liability insurance with civil liability either. Maybe you think that as a lawyer you don't need this, but a professional error with damage to third parties can be very expensive without this insurance.