Belgian tax return and tax refund 2026

To avoid a penalty, your documents should reach the Belgian tax office on time. Every year the tax office publishes detailed dates:

• tax residents, that is, people registered in Belgium, must submit their tax return for 2025 by 30.06.2026,
• non-residents, that is, people who were not registered in Belgium, have until 20.11.2026 to submit their tax return for 2025.

The tax year in Belgium matches the calendar year: it runs from 1 January to 31 December. During that time, collect all proof of costs and reliefs so that you can claim the maximum tax refund.

If you missed a filing, you can still catch up up to 3 years back. This does not apply, however, to workers in the horticulture and agriculture sector: if these people do not declare their income on time, they may not receive a decision and may not get a refund.

Everyone who worked legally in Belgium in 2025 is obliged to file a tax return in Belgium and may apply for a refund of overpaid tax. A tax return declaring the amount of income can be submitted to the Belgian tax office (Federale Overheidsdienst Financiën) in two ways:

• by completing a paper tax return,
• or by filing electronically.

With us you can file electronically, which speeds up the decision of the Belgian tax office, so your tax refund reaches you as quickly as possible.

Depending on the country where you are a tax resident, you may also have to report your Belgian income in that country. Tax paid in Belgium is then taken into account, which avoids double taxation. If you are a Polish tax resident, Belgian income is reported in Poland on the PIT-36 form with the ZG annex, and we can help you with this as well.

Yes. A joint tax return in Belgium is compulsory for married couples. To obtain the relevant reliefs and make your Belgian tax refund as high as possible, you should have the same registered address (confirmed on a certificate of joint family registration). An individual Belgian tax return can only be filed by a single person, a widow/widower or a divorcee.

How long a Belgian tax filing takes depends on several factors, including the tax office's workload, the date the return was filed and how complete the documentation is. If the taxpayer is obliged to file a tax return and submits it on time, the whole procedure usually takes between 6 and 12 months.

If the deadline is missed, the waiting time for the refund will be longer. Once the decision is issued, you will receive the transfer with the refund amount within a few to a dozen or so working days.

If the filing results in a tax refund arising from an overpayment of tax, the Belgian tax office (Federale Overheidsdienst Financiën) will transfer it to the bank account registered with the office.

Commission-based payment.
Once your return has been processed, the tax office will send the money to a technical account created specially for you. The Belgian tax office will send the decision confirming your tax refund to your correspondence address. As soon as we receive it from you, we will transfer the refund amount less our fee.

Payment in advance.
If you pay for the service before it is carried out, the tax office will send the tax refund directly to your own bank account. All you need to do is mark this in our questionnaire and attach the relevant confirmation.

You can apply for a Belgian tax refund up to 3 years back. The Belgian tax office may, however, at any time call on you to submit an overdue return and charge interest for the delay. Every such request must be answered, so you should not put off filing.

Keep in mind that the Belgian tax refund procedure can be financially very rewarding, and the waiting time for the refund is much shorter when you file on time.

You are entitled to tax reliefs in Belgium if at least 75% of your worldwide income in a given tax year is Belgian income. To prove this, you present the Belgian tax office with an EU/EEA certificate stating the amount of income earned outside Belgium (or the absence of such income). Belgium also accepts a tax return filed in your country of residence as confirmation (for example, in Poland the PIT return with the ZG annex).

The reliefs you may be able to claim are:

• the marriage quotient
• child relief
• relief for caring for an elderly person registered at the same address
• child maintenance payments
• relief for a low-income spouse

Not every taxpayer is entitled to the tax-free allowance, so it is worth collecting all documents confirming your entitlement to reliefs in a given tax year in order to obtain the highest possible refund.

Belgium applies a progressive taxation system for personal income, with tax rates from 25% to 50%. This means that the higher the income, the higher the tax rate. As FPS Finances shows, the following rates apply to income earned in 2025 (filed in 2026):

• 25% – for income up to EUR 15,820
• 40% – for income from EUR 15,820 to EUR 27,920
• 45% – for income from EUR 27,920 to EUR 48,320
• 50% – for income above EUR 48,320

Belgian income tax covers various sources of income, such as employment income, pension benefits, rental income and capital gains.

The tax-free allowance is the part of your income that is not taxed. In 2025 the basic tax-free allowance in Belgium is EUR 10,910. This amount may be increased depending on the taxpayer's family situation, for example the number of dependent children.

For people with children the tax-free allowance goes up. For 2024 the amounts were:

• 1 child – an extra EUR 1,920
• 2 children – an extra EUR 4,950
• 3 children – an extra EUR 9,090
• 4 children – an extra EUR 17,940
• more than 4 children – EUR 17,940 plus an extra EUR 6,850 for each child from the 5th onwards.

Thanks to this, people with more children benefit from a higher tax-free allowance, which means lower tax.

The obligation to file a tax return in Belgium applies to:

• Belgian tax residents – people who live in Belgium or whose centre of vital interests is in Belgium,
• non-residents – people who do not live in Belgium but earn income from Belgian sources, e.g. from work, renting out property, business activity or dividends.

In addition, anyone who has received a tax return form (the so-called „déclaration à l’impôt des personnes physiques”) must submit it, even if they believe they have not earned taxable income. The Belgian tax office (FPS Finances) may impose penalties for failing to respond.

Filing a Belgian tax return is the obligation of every person working legally in Belgium, regardless of how much they earned. For failing to file, FPS Finances can impose penalties of up to €1,250.

You may receive the form Aangifte in de belasting van niet-inwoners from the tax office. It is both the main tax return form and a request to file. If you receive a request to file a tax return, submit it within the deadline indicated by the office to avoid a penalty, even if you did not work in Belgium and believe the obligation does not apply to you.