Belgium: Living There - Tax Issues

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Allowances

Residents are taxed on worldwide income, at the rates mentioned in Taxes and Costs in Belgium. However, residents are given a lot of allowances which are deductible from their taxable income.

These allowances are housing allowance [usually fixed arbitrarily as the positive difference between 200/60 of the indexed registered cadastral income of house-owners and 12% of foreign base salary]; and cost-of-living allowance [fixed arbitrarily at 5% of foreign base salary up to a ceiling of €2,500].

Municipal taxes on income vary from zero to 8.5% depending on the municipality.

Residents, either single or married, are each entitled to tax-free allowances of €7,010 (for tax year 2007). For married couples, any balance that is not used up by one spouse can be transferred and applied to the income of the other spouse. Child allowance is augmented by a progressive scale as follows (handicapped children count as two children in the scale below):

Allowances are also given for other dependent relatives who form part of the household. The tax-free allowance is €1,230 per dependent relative for the tax year 2007 (for handicapped relatives, it is double the standard rate or €2,460).

Belgium - more data and information

• Lawyers (attorneys) with property law practices in Belgium

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