Students

Your Student Certificate specifies the number of days you have worked as a student part-timer during the ongoing calendar year. You can easily download your Student Certificate in pdf format from Student@Work, the student website of the National Social Security Office.

It is very important to deliver this certificate to your employer, so he can check the number of days you have worked at all times. You are allowed to work more than 50 days, but your employer has to indicate that you will pay the normal social security contributions and taxes from the 51^st day. If this is not reported correctly, there is a risk that you will be taxed retroactively for the whole period you worked. Therefore, you have to download your Student Certificate every quarter in which you are working and forward it to your employer. 

As of 1 January, a new set of rules on student work has come into effect. Students are now allowed to work 50 calendar days (without making a distinction between summer and the rest of the year) and a solidarity contribution of 8.13% is applied during this entire period. 2.71% is paid by the student and 5.42% by the employer.

This allows you to decide for yourself when you want to work. It is also possible to work two subsequent months in summer now.

A “working student” is a student working more than 50 days per year. If the maximum number of working days allowed for student part-timers is exceeded, the special system of the solidarity contribution on the student’s gross salary (2.71%) no longer applies. Therefore, a working student pays the same social contributions and taxes as a regular employee.

It is forbidden to work first as a student part-timer and then as a working student for the same employer within the same calendar year. Therefore, each student must specify at the start of the year (or when they are employed for the first time) if they want to work as a student part-timer or as a working student. If the student exceeds the maximum number of working days for a student part-timer, the full employment period is subject to the normal social security contributions and taxes for both student and employer.

For the first 50 working days, student part-timers can benefit from an advantageous system of solidarity contributions, which means they only have to pay 2.71% in contributions on their gross salary. Starting from the 51st day, the employer and the student will pay the normal social security contributions. This means 13.07% for social contributions and at least 11.11% withholding tax. 

However, in this case you are entitled to additional benefits, such as holiday allowances. And if your annual income does not exceed € 7070, the withholding tax will be refunded by the tax authorities. You have to file a tax return for this.

The student has to meet the following conditions to be a dependent child of their parents for the income year 2012:

• Be part of his parents’ household on 1 January 2012;
• Not receive any salaries that are considered professional expenses for the parents, e.g. in the case of employment in the family business;
• The net livelihoods of the student must not exceed a certain amount:

This amount depends on the taxation unit of the parents.

Your parents will continue to receive family allowances, even if you work as a student part-timer, if you do not exceed 240 hours of work per quarter. This is about the equivalent of a regular part-time job.

During summer, i.e. in July, August and September, you can work as much as you want without losing your family allowances.