Retirement Planning for Expatriates in Belgium

Retirement planning is a process with many steps that evolves over time.

To have a comfortable, secure - and fun - retirement, you have to build the financial cushion that will fund it all. To get to the fun part, you need to pay attention to the serious, the boring planning how you’ll get there.

Your employer, your bank, your financial advisers have helped you build that financial cushion. It is time to take your pension, look for a place to retire and take a few decisions that will ensure that you can retire with your peace of mind.

What about your state pension, in Belgium or abroad? How much will you get, and how much tax will you pay?

In Belgium, company pensions are built up to be drawn down at retirement. In other countries, you can draw down a part of your pension, tax free, the rest is used to give you a monthly pension. How does that work in Belgium?

Retirement Planning Doesn’t Stop When You Retire

You have your savings, real estate in Belgium and abroad, and money in the bank? How do you invest those in a tax efficient manner?

And you may have thought about retiring back home, or somewhere under the sun, … do you move there (tip: try it out for at least six months). Or do you keep Belgium as your main residence?

Wherever you go, you may want to think about planning your estate and planning your succession. Each country has its own inheritance rules and its own inheritance tax rules.

You do not need to go to Austria, Estonia, Malta, Romania, Sweden to avoid inheritance tax. There are always solutions.

In the middle of complexity lies opportunity.

Even Belgium can be a tax haven if you know how.

And you may want to plan for when you cannot look after your finances anymore. Rather than having a judge decide who will look after your finances, decide for yourself.