Accounts in Belgium
Every kind of account and pension the planner offers in Belgium: what each one is, when money can come out, how it is taxed, and the pages we read the rules from.
Belgium has no general tax-free investment account. What it has are two kinds of personal retirement saving with a yearly tax reduction on the payments in: pension savings (épargne-pension, pensioensparen) and long-term savings (épargne à long terme, langetermijnsparen). Both pay one levy around 60 and are then free of tax, so each has its own row in the money step.
The largest pot of Belgian retirement savings is the workplace pension, the second pillar (group insurance or a pension fund). It is usually paid as one lump sum when you retire, so it is not an account here: enter it as a lump sum after tax, or in the pension step if you take it as an annuity. Shares, funds and savings accounts go in the investment account.
Rules as of the 2026 tax year, read from the authorities on 2026-07-30. Each account lists the pages we read it from.
Accounts you can enter
Investment account
We assume funds that reinvest their income, so nothing is taxed while you hold them. Since 2026 the profit is taxed at 10% when you sell, above a yearly exempt amount.
Shares, funds and bonds in an ordinary securities account (compte-titres, effectenrekening). Since 2026 profit on selling is taxed at 10%, above a yearly exempt amount that rises with prices. The plan assumes funds that reinvest their income, so nothing is charged while you hold them.
How it is taxed, rate by rate, is on the tax page.
- In the withdrawal orders
- With the ordinary accounts
- Pays out
- Whenever you like
- At the first death
- Your partner takes it over as it stands
Pension savings (épargne-pension)
A pension savings fund or insurance. At 60, or 10 years after you opened it if that was at 55 or later, 8% is taken from it once; after that nothing you take out is taxed. Cashing it in before 60 costs 33%. If you are already past the levy, it is not taken again.
Pension savings is Belgium's most widely held personal pension, as a pension savings fund at a bank or as an insurance contract. Nothing is taxed while the money grows. Instead of income tax on the way out, the law takes one levy of 8%, at 60 or, for a contract opened at 55 or later, on its tenth anniversary.
The plan takes the 8% from the account on that day and from then on treats it as pension savings after the levy: nothing it earns or pays out is taxed again. Money taken out between 60 and the tenth anniversary of a late contract pays the 8% as it comes out.
Before 60 the money is cashed in only at a 33% charge instead of income tax, and only if you allow it. If the levy is already behind you when the plan starts, the plan does not take it again, and money you pay in after the levy is never levied. If you turn 60 this year and the levy has already been taken, the plan takes it once more.
- In the withdrawal orders
- With the accounts taxed on the way out
- Before the earliest age
- Before 60, only by cashing it in at a 33% charge, and only if you allow it
- Pays out
- Whenever you like
- At the first death
- Your partner takes it over as it stands
- When you opened it We assume: before 55.
- Age you opened it From 55 to 80. No default: you answer it.
- Cash it in early if the plan runs short On unless you turn it off.
For a pension savings fund, the 8 percent levy at 60 falls on what you paid in, grown at an assumed 4.75 percent a year, not on what the fund is worth. We do not know what you paid in or when, so we charge it on the fund's value. If your fund beat 4.75 percent a year we show too much, and if it lagged, too little.
Could go either way/a holder of a pension savings fund who has not yet reached the levy
From 2015 to 2019 an advance of 1 percent a year was taken on pension savings held at the end of 2014, and it counts against the levy at 60. We do not ask that balance, so we charge the whole levy and show up to 5 percent of that 2014 balance too much, once.
Your real tax is lower/anyone who held pension savings at the end of 2014 and reaches 60 from 2020 on
Pension savings or long-term savings cashed in before 60 are taxed at 33 percent, and your municipality adds its surcharge on top. We charge the 33 percent without the surcharge, so we show up to about 3 percent of the amount too little.
Your real tax is higher/someone who cashes in pension or long-term savings before 60
A contract opened at 55 or later is levied at its tenth anniversary, but money taken out between 60 and that anniversary is levied when it is paid. We charge 8 percent, or 10 for long-term savings, on each such payment, where the law charges it once on the contract's base on the day of payment. And if the levy has already been taken, choose pension savings after the levy: otherwise we take it again when the plan starts.
Could go either way/someone who opened pension or long-term savings at 55 or later and draws from it before its tenth anniversary
- Wikifin (FSMA): Comment votre épargne-pension est-elle taxée ? (read 2026-10-07)
- Justel (SPF Justice): Code des droits et taxes divers, articles 184 à 187/1 (read 2026-10-07)
The law behind it
Long-term savings (épargne à long terme)
A life insurance with the tax reduction for long-term savings. Like pension savings, but 10% is taken once at 60, or 10 years after you opened it if that was at 55 or later. Cashing it in before 60 costs 33%.
Long-term savings is a life insurance contract that earned a yearly tax reduction on its premiums. It works like pension savings with a higher levy: 10%, taken once at 60, or on the tenth anniversary of a contract opened at 55 or later. After that, nothing it earns or pays out is taxed.
The plan takes the 10% from the contract on that day and then treats it as pension savings after the levy. Cashed in before 60, it pays 33% instead of income tax, if you allow it.
- In the withdrawal orders
- With the accounts taxed on the way out
- Before the earliest age
- Before 60, only by cashing it in at a 33% charge, and only if you allow it
- Pays out
- Whenever you like
- At the first death
- Your partner takes it over as it stands
- When you opened it We assume: before 55.
- Age you opened it From 55 to 80. No default: you answer it.
- Cash it in early if the plan runs short On unless you turn it off.
Pension savings or long-term savings cashed in before 60 are taxed at 33 percent, and your municipality adds its surcharge on top. We charge the 33 percent without the surcharge, so we show up to about 3 percent of the amount too little.
Your real tax is higher/someone who cashes in pension or long-term savings before 60
A contract opened at 55 or later is levied at its tenth anniversary, but money taken out between 60 and that anniversary is levied when it is paid. We charge 8 percent, or 10 for long-term savings, on each such payment, where the law charges it once on the contract's base on the day of payment. And if the levy has already been taken, choose pension savings after the levy: otherwise we take it again when the plan starts.
Could go either way/someone who opened pension or long-term savings at 55 or later and draws from it before its tenth anniversary
- Wikifin (FSMA): Réduction pour l'épargne à long terme (read 2026-10-07)
- Justel (SPF Justice): Code des droits et taxes divers, articles 184 à 187/1 (read 2026-10-07)
The law behind it
Kinds of pension
A pension paid to you as an income goes in the pension step, not here. Choose its kind there and the plan taxes it by that kind's rules; leave it on standard and it is taxed like a state or workplace pension.
Workplace pension paid as an annuity (second pillar)
Taxed in full as pension income.
A group insurance, pension fund or self-employed plan (VAPZ, PLCI) paid as a regular annuity. Most are paid as a lump sum instead, which goes in the pension step as a one-off after tax.
When a workplace pension capital is turned into a lifelong annuity after it has been taxed, Belgium does not tax the payments you receive. Each year it treats 3 percent of the converted capital as your income and charges 30 percent on it, plus the commune surcharge, whatever the annuity actually pays. We cannot set up that kind of income yet. If you enter such an annuity as a workplace pension we tax every payment on the ordinary scale, which usually comes to more than Belgium charges.
Could go either way/anyone who took a workplace pension capital and converted it into a lifelong annuity
- FSMA: Comment les pensions complémentaires sont-elles taxées ? (read 2026-10-07)
The law behind it
Where other things you hold go
- Second-pillar lump sum (group insurance, pension fund, VAPZ, PLCI, EIP)
- Enter it in the pension step as a one-off lump sum in the year it is paid, after its tax. That tax is 10% to 20% depending on your age and career, plus the health and solidarity contributions, and the plan does not work it out for you. Do not enter it as pension savings: that would charge only the 8% levy.
- Regulated savings account (compte d'épargne réglementé)
- Enter it in the investment account. In law its first 1,020 of interest a year per person is free of tax and the rest is charged 15% as it is paid. The plan instead treats its growth like a fund's, taxed at 10% only when you take it out and above the yearly exempt amount, so its tax on this money is approximate.
- Life insurance without a tax reduction (branch 21 or 23)
- Enter it in the investment account. Since 2026 its gain is taxed at 10% when it is paid out, which is how the plan taxes the investment account.
New rules not in the model yet
- An extra charge on large workplace pensions
- For workplace pensions paid from 1 July 2027, a further 2% will be taken from the part of all of them together above 150,000, according to the regulator (FSMA). The plan does not charge it yet.