For Belgians

How tax residency works

Belgium taxes inhabitants of the Kingdom on worldwide income through personal income tax (impôt des personnes physiques). You are an inhabitant if your domicile is in Belgium, meaning the place where you actually and lastingly live, or, if you have no Belgian domicile, your seat of wealth (siège de la fortune), the place from which you manage your assets and economic interests.

Being registered in the National Register at a Belgian commune creates a legal presumption that you are resident. You can rebut it with facts, but deregistering removes it. For married couples and legal cohabitants, the tax domicile is where the household is established, so both partners are either Belgian residents or both non residents.

There is no day count. Leaving a partner behind in the family home, or continuing to manage investments and companies from Belgium, are the usual reasons a move does not hold up.

Leaving properly

A clean departure moves your household and the management of your wealth, and shows it on paper. Belgian rules look at facts, so the administrative steps and your real life abroad should tell the same story.

1. 01

   Deregister at your commune

   Declare your departure to your commune before you leave and obtain the modèle 8, the certificate of removal from the population register.

2. 02

   Register with the consulate

   Use the modèle 8 to join the consular population register in your new country, which keeps passports, identity documents and voting in order.

3. 03

   Move the household and the wealth

   Your partner and children, and the place you run your affairs from, should move with you. A Belgian address or office used to manage your assets can keep your seat of wealth in Belgium.

4. 04

   Record values and latent gains

   Keep the 31 December 2025 values of your financial assets and their value on your departure date. Latent gains must be reported on leaving, even where payment of the exit tax is deferred.

5. 05

   File the departure year returns

   For the year you leave, the resident return covers income up to your departure. Belgian income after that date goes on a return for the non resident tax (impôt des non résidents, INR).

Exit tax, property and investments

The Law of 6 April 2026 introduced a capital gains tax on financial assets with effect from 1 January 2026. Gains on shares, bonds, funds, crypto assets, certain savings insurance, currencies and investment gold are taxed at 10% above an annual exemption of 10,000 euros. Holdings of 20% or more in a company have their own scale: the first 1 million euros of gain is exempt over five years, then rates run from 1.25% to 10%. Gains built up before 2026 stay exempt.

The same law contains an exit tax. When you transfer your tax residence abroad, you are treated as having sold your financial assets at market value, so gains accrued since 1 January 2026 become taxable. Payment is deferred automatically if you move to an EU or EEA (European Economic Area) country, or to a country whose tax treaty with Belgium provides for information exchange and recovery assistance. For other countries, deferral must be requested with a guarantee.

Once deferred, the tax lapses if you do not sell the assets within two years of leaving. Implementing decrees were published in May 2026 and more guidance is still expected, so our team confirms how the rules apply to your portfolio before you set a departure date.

Belgian property remains taxable through the non resident tax, usually on its indexed cadastral income (revenu cadastral, a notional rental value set by the administration) increased by 40%, or on the rent if it is let to a business. Regional property tax (précompte immobilier) also continues. Accounts held with Belgian institutions can still fall under the annual tax on securities accounts, 0.15% on accounts worth more than 1 million euros.

Inheritance tax is regional. If the deceased lived in Belgium, the worldwide estate is taxed by the region (Flanders, Wallonia or Brussels) where they lived longest during the last five years. If they lived abroad, only Belgian real estate is taxed, by the region where it sits. Unlike France and Spain, the heir’s residence plays no part, so it is the move of the person who will leave the estate that counts.

Pensions and social security

Belgian statutory pensions are paid abroad by the Federal Pensions Service (Service fédéral des Pensions), which asks for a life certificate each year. Whether Belgium or your new country taxes them depends on the type of pension and the tax treaty, if any; without a treaty, Belgian pensions stay taxable in Belgium under the non resident tax.

Group insurance and pension savings, the second and third pillars, can usually be left in place and are excluded from the new capital gains tax. How a payout is taxed depends on the product and on where you live when it is paid, so your accountant confirms the position before you draw on it.

Your membership of a mutualité, the health insurance fund, ends once you settle outside the EEA. Belgium’s Overseas Social Security (Sécurité sociale d’outre mer, managed by the ONSS, the national social security office) offers voluntary pension, disability and health cover to people living outside the EEA, and is worth considering if you want to keep building Belgian pension rights.

Dual citizenship

Belgium allows dual citizenship. Since 28 April 2008, a Belgian who voluntarily takes another nationality keeps Belgian nationality, whatever the other country.

One rule matters for families abroad. A Belgian born abroad who holds another nationality and has no principal residence in Belgium between 18 and 28 loses Belgian nationality at 28, unless they sign a declaration of retention at the consulate first. Some who obtained a Belgian passport or identity card in that period are also protected, so children raised abroad should keep the date in mind.

All the citizenship programs we offer allow dual citizenship, so Belgian applicants can hold both passports.