Tax comparison
🇧🇪Belgium vs 🇪🇸Spain
At €80,000 gross, the net annual salary is €45,670 in Belgium and €52,865 in Spain, a gap of €7,195 per year. EXPATRIATION.IO comparison, 2026 tax scales: adjust the gross salary and the household below.
Enter in EUR. Converted to local currency automatically.
Comparing taxes: Belgium and Spain
Belgium (country) and Spain (country) have distinct approaches to taxing employment income. On a gross salary of €80,000, the effective total deduction rate is 42.9% in Belgium compared to 33.9% in Spain. That translates to a difference of roughly €7,195 per year in favor of Spain.
In Belgium, income tax amounts to €23,874 and social contributions add €10,456. In Spain, income tax is €23,156 and social contributions are €3,979.
The net annual take-home is €45,670 in Belgium and €52,865 in Spain. These figures assume a single filer with no children or special deductions. Actual results vary based on household composition, deductions, and specific tax credits available in each jurisdiction.
Equivalent gross and tipping point
At €80,000 gross in Belgium, about €66,900 gross is needed in Spain to reach the same net salary.
That figure answers the same net. For the gross that gives back the same purchasing power, restated at each side's price level, the two answers sit side by side.
Over the €30,000 to €250,000 gross range the ranking reverses at around €36,500: below that level Belgium leaves the higher net salary, above it Spain does.
These figures use the default profile. The Expat Package Report runs the same calculation on your own two salaries and household, and quantifies the gap in euros.
Detailed comparison at €80,000 gross
| Belgium | Spain | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross annual salary | €80,000 | €80,000 |
| Income tax (national or federal) | €23,874 | €23,156 |
| Social contributions | €10,456 | €3,979 |
| Total deductions | €34,330 | €27,135 |
| Net annual salary | €45,670 | €52,865 |
| Net monthly salary | €3,806 | €4,405 |
| Effective deduction rate | 42.9% | 33.9% |
Pay compared
On pay itself, the 2022 European Structure of Earnings Survey gives, on one definition for both sides, full-time gross annual earnings averaging €54,959 in Belgium and €32,814 in Spain. The medians, less sensitive to very high salaries, are €50,994 and €27,440. Scope: enterprises with 10 or more employees, public administration excluded. The survey is quadrennial and 2022 is its latest edition.
Breakdown of social contributions
Belgium
| Social Security (ONSS) | €10,456 |
|---|---|
| Total contributions | €10,456 |
Spain
| General contributions | €2,877 |
|---|---|
| Unemployment | €949 |
| Professional training | €61 |
| MEI (intergenerational equity) | €92 |
| Total contributions | €3,979 |
Examples at several salary levels
| Gross (EUR) | Rate Belgium | Net Belgium | Rate Spain | Net Spain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €45,000 | 32.1% | €30,558 | 27.6% | €32,600 |
| €80,000 | 42.9% | €45,670 | 33.9% | €52,865 |
| €120,000 | 48.5% | €61,839 | 37.6% | €74,865 |
| €250,000 | 54.2% | €114,388 | 41.5% | €146,365 |
These figures assume a single filer with no children; the tool above lets you adjust the salary and the household configuration (married, 1 to 3 children).
Special tax regimes
The figures on this page apply the ordinary scale. Where one of the two sides opens a tax regime of its own for arrivals from abroad, it is computed alongside here, without changing the comparison above.
Belgium · BBIB Expat Regime
Up to 35% of gross remuneration is exempt from income tax as costs proper to the employer, without ceiling, for remuneration paid from 1 January 2025 (law of 18 December 2025, Belgian Official Gazette of 30 December 2025, articles 15 to 18, which also lowered the salary threshold to 70,000 EUR). For social security the exemption stays at 30% of remuneration, capped at 90,000 EUR a year: the royal decree of 28 November 1969 (article 19, paragraph 2, 4°) refers to the version of the regime in force on 1 January 2022 and was not amended, as the ONSS administrative instructions 2026/3 state, so the tax and social treatments differ. Applies to employees and executives recruited from abroad or seconded to Belgium. The comparison above applies the ordinary scale and does not assume this regime.
| Gross (EUR) | Net Belgium, ordinary scale | Net under the regime | Difference (signed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| €45,000 | €30,558 | €38,497 | +€7,940 |
| €80,000 | €45,670 | €61,442 | +€15,772 |
| €120,000 | €61,839 | €86,497 | +€24,658 |
| €250,000 | €114,388 | €165,758 | +€51,371 |
Who this regime is open to
Cumulative conditions: recruited directly from abroad or seconded within a multinational group; during the 60 months before taking up the position in Belgium, neither a Belgian tax resident, nor subject to the non-resident tax on Belgian professional income, nor living within 150 km of the border; gross annual remuneration above 70,000 EUR; regime granted on application approved by the tax administration. Whether a given move qualifies is a question for a tax lawyer, not for this calculator.
Spain · Beckham Law (Ley Beckham)
Flat 24% on employment income up to 600,000 EUR and 47% above. While the regime applies, all employment income is deemed obtained in Spain (Art. 93.2.b LIRPF), and the taxpayer is liable to wealth tax on Spanish assets only. It runs for the tax period of the change of residence and the five following ones. The comparison above applies the ordinary scale and does not assume this regime. Over the salaries tested, the regime only overtakes the ordinary scale from €80,000 gross: below that, the ordinary brackets leave more.
| Gross (EUR) | Net Spain, ordinary scale | Net under the regime | Difference (signed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| €45,000 | €32,600 | €31,275 | −€1,325 |
| €80,000 | €52,865 | €56,821 | +€3,956 |
| €120,000 | €74,865 | €87,221 | +€12,356 |
| €250,000 | €146,365 | €186,021 | +€39,656 |
Who this regime is open to
The taxpayer must acquire Spanish tax residence as a result of the move, and three cumulative conditions of Art. 93.1 must hold. First, not having been resident in Spain during the five tax periods preceding the move. Second, the move must follow, in the first year of the regime or the year before, one of four causes: an employment contract, professional athletes under Royal Decree 1006/1985 excepted, which covers starting an ordinary, special or statutory employment relationship with an employer in Spain, a posting ordered by the employer and evidenced by a letter of assignment from that employer, or work performed remotely using exclusively computer, telematic and telecommunication means; becoming a director of an entity, though where that entity is an asset-holding entity under Art. 5.2 of the corporate income tax law the director may not hold a stake that makes them a related party under Art. 18 of Ley 27/2014; carrying on in Spain an economic activity certified as entrepreneurial under Art. 70 of Ley 14/2013; or carrying on in Spain an economic activity as a highly an employment lawyer serving start-ups within the meaning of Art. 3 of Ley 28/2022, or engaged in training, research, development and innovation, where that remuneration is more than 40% of total business, professional and employment income. Third, obtaining no income that would qualify as earned through a permanent establishment in Spain, except under the last two of those causes. A spouse, children under 25 or of any age where disabled, or the parent of those children absent a marriage bond, may opt in on their own conditions, one of which is that the sum of their taxable bases be lower than the principal taxpayer's. Whether a given move qualifies is a question for a tax lawyer, not for this calculator.
Cost of living
Consolidated cost-of-living index (Paris = 100): Brussels 90, Madrid 75. This is a rounded editorial benchmark, built from Numbeo readings and official statistics rather than published by them. On a gross salary of €80,000, the net amounts adjusted to this index correspond to a purchasing power on the order of €51,000 for Brussels and €70,000 for Madrid, at Paris price levels.
To go further: the cost-of-living comparison and the city budget calculator.
Sources: Belgium: finances.belgium.be, tax year 2026 · Spain: agenciatributaria.es, tax year 2026
This tool provides estimates based on public datasets. It is not the opinion of a tax lawyer. Consult a tax lawyer, a chartered accountant or a licensed financial professional before making relocation or employment decisions.