Income taxes

Tax obligation

In April or May, international students who are registered in the foreigner’s register at the city hall will most likely receive a tax form from the Federal Public Service Finance.
This individual income tax return relates to the income of the previous calendar year.
You have to file this tax return, even if you did not work in Belgium and as such did not earn an income in Belgium or if your income is well below the tax-free ‘personal tax allowance‘.

Note! In case you will leave Belgium before the tax form has arrived and you expect a tax refund, you should contact the local tax office and ask for a form that will permit you to declare your income in advance.

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Filing your tax return

If you have received the paper forms from the Belgian tax department, you can either fill in the declaration with the paper form or you can declare your income online.

• You fill in the paper form which you have received and return it to the tax authorities by sending it in the brown enveloppe. If you did not have an income in Belgium, you can just fill in the date and sign the document before sending it.
• You complete the tax return online through the portal site MyMinfin (website in Dutch/French/German). You can login to the online tool by using your Belgian ID card or residence permit card + the pin code of this card and an e-ID card reader or with the app ‘itsme’ that you have downloaded and installed on your mobile phone.
  Even if you have received a paper tax return, your online tax return is always available.
  Doing  an online tax return is much easier then the paper tax return. The online tax return is  largely pre-completed with the information which the tax authorities already know of you (such as your personal data) or which they have received from others (e.g. in case you have worked as a student: the income data provided by your employer).
• You may have received a proposal of simplified declaration (in Dutch: ‘voorstel van vereenvoudigde aangifte’). This letter contains a simulation of the tax you will have to pay or the tax that will be refunded to you.
  The calculation has been made by the tax administration based on the information the tax department already has about you.
  If you approve with this proposal, you do not have to do anything.
  If you do not approve with the proposal or the data which are given, you have to do the necessary corrections or adjustments either on the answer form, or via MyMinfin.

When you are not married or legally cohabiting, you file a tax return in your own name.
When you are married (and your partner is living with you in Belgium) or legally cohabiting in Belgium, you and your partner have to file a joint return.

In case you have children who are staying with you in Belgium, you have to fill in the number of children dependent on you.

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Paying income tax

Whether you have to pay income tax in Belgium depends on how your taxable income in the previous calendar year. If your income remains under a certain amount, you not have to pay taxes. This is the ‘personal tax allowance’.
The basic amount of the personal tax allowance is € 10 570 (income tax year 2024, assessment year 2025) and € 10 910 (income tax year 2025, assessment year 2026).

When you have worked as an employee, you will receive tax documents (in Dutch: ‘fiscale fiche 281.10’) from each employer you worked for, in March or April of the year following the employment. You need these documents to fill out your tax return.
If your employer has withheld income tax from your salary, but your annual income is below the personal tax allowance, which is tax-free, filing the tax return will result in a refund of the tax which was withheld.

If you received a non-taxable scholarship, you should not declare this as income. Child benefits are also not taxable.

If you or your partner with whom you file a joint tax return or your minor children living with you in Belgium have had an income abroad (e.g. from immovable property, from employment, pensions, royalties, dividends,…) while registered in Belgium, it is advisable to contact the contact center of the Federal Public Service Finance for advice and assistance or to contact your local tax center (you can find the address on your tax form), or to send an e-mail.

As a general rule, you have to declare your worldwide income, but that does not mean that this income will be taxable in Belgium, as Belgium has agreed with many countries in treaties to mitigate the effects of double taxation.

The paper tax form should normally be returned by the end of June.
If you complete the tax return online through the portal site Tax-on-Web, you get some extra weeks to return the tax income.

Your tax assessment will arrive around April of the next calendar year.

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More information

• at the Social Services’ office of your campus/Office for Student Affairs
• at the local tax office (address on your tax form)
• at the contact center of the Federal Public Service Finance (tel. number: 0257 257 57)
• by sending an e-mail to: info.tax@minfin.fed.be
• MyMinfin

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