The Belgian income statement line by line: from operating result to net profit

The short answer

The Belgian income statement (resultatenrekening) runs in fixed steps, each with a National Bank code. Operating income (70/76A) minus operating charges (60/66A) gives the operating result, code 9901. Small and micro companies start instead from gross margin (9900), and their turnover line is optional. Add financial income (75/76B), subtract financial charges (65/66B) and you reach profit before taxes (9903). After taxes on the result (67/77) and deferred taxes (680, 780) comes the profit for the period, code 9904: the net profit. Transfers to or from untaxed reserves give the profit to be appropriated (9905), which the general meeting divides between reserves, dividends and profit carried forward. Since 2016 there is no separate block of extraordinary items: one-offs sit inside the operating or financial result as non-recurring items.

The codes come from the National Bank's current standard models (2021 release, with and without share capital), article 3:90 of the Royal Decree of 29 April 2019, the National Bank's 2016 statistics guide and CBN advice 2016/24, all read on 1 October 2026. English labels are our translation of the Dutch models. This is general information, not accounting or tax advice.

The income statement line by line

The abbreviated and micro models fold the first lines into gross margin and keep the rest.

Operating income and operating charges

Article 3:90 of the Royal Decree defines each line. Turnover (70) is the sale of goods and services to third parties in the company's ordinary activities, after trade discounts and without VAT. Other operating income (74) covers operating receipts that are not sales, such as operating subsidies. Services and other goods (61) also holds temporary agency workers and directors paid without an employment contract, so those costs never reach staff costs (62).

The abbreviated and micro models replace the top of this block with gross margin (70, 71, 72, 74 and 76A minus 60 and 61); see gross margin in Belgian annual accounts.

Operating result (9901)

Code 9901, bedrijfswinst or bedrijfsverlies, is what the business earns before financing and tax. Two points:

• It contains one-offs. A gain on selling a building sits in 76A and so inside 9901. The National Bank's own net sales margin ratio therefore uses 9901 minus 76A plus 66A, divided by turnover, and only when turnover is filed.

• It is after depreciation. Add back 630, 631/4 and 635/8 and you have EBITDA; how to calculate EBITDA from Belgian accounts covers the formula and its variants.

Financial result, taxes and profit for the period

The financial result has no code of its own: it is financial income (75/76B) minus financial charges (65/66B). Recurring charges hold interest (650) and other financial costs (652/9); non-recurring items (76B, 66B) are, for example, gains or losses on selling financial fixed assets.

Profit before taxes (9903) is then reduced by taxes on the result (67/77), including prepayments, foreign profit taxes and corrections for earlier years. The result is profit or loss for the period (9904), the net profit. For return on equity the National Bank divides 9904 by equity (10/15). Profitability ratios and ROE work through it.

Below 9904, transfers to untaxed reserves (689) and withdrawals from them (789) cover gains whose tax exemption depends on keeping them in the company. That gives the profit to be appropriated for the period (9905).

The appropriation account

The appropriation account (resultaatverwerking) starts from the profit to be appropriated (9906): the year's 9905 plus profit or loss carried forward (14P).

The carried-forward amount lands in code 14 of the balance sheet, inside equity; the Belgian balance sheet shows where. The legal reserve line matters mainly for an nv: article 7:211 of the Code of Companies and Associations makes it set aside at least one twentieth of net profit until the reserve reaches one tenth of capital. The bv chapter of the Code has no such rule.