Net salary in Belgium

Income tax scale 2026

Gross to net for common salaries (2026)

White-collar employee (contributions on 100% of gross); single person without children, and married couple or legal cohabitants with a single income, without children (marital quotient); representative 7% communal tax. Employer cost for a private employer of 20 workers or more, without the private work-accident insurance. Estimates for planning, identical to the calculator above.

Wage benchmarks in Belgium

Minimum: National Labour Council, guaranteed average minimum monthly income (RMMMG) in force since 1 April 2026; sums paid during the year, such as a year-end bonus, count towards it. Average: Statbel, gross monthly wage of full-time employees, 2022 (be.STAT series; its release defines it as companies of ten people or more, some sectors excluded, October reference, periodic bonuses included).

Withholding tax and final tax: why the pay slip and the tax bill differ

The net on a Belgian pay slip is the gross minus social contributions and minus the withholding tax (précompte professionnel), which the employer deducts each month under the rules of annex III to the royal decree implementing the income tax code, replaced for pay from 1 January 2026 by the royal decree of 11 December 2025. That withholding is computed on its own scale: 26.75% up to 16,710 EUR, 42.80% to 29,500, 48.15% to 51,050 and 53.50% above, after a 2,987.98 EUR reduction for the tax-free quota of 11,170 EUR, on the annual net taxable base.

The final tax is settled a year later on the tax return: the tax computed on the 2026 scale (25% to 16,720 EUR, 40% to 29,510, 45% to 51,070, 50% above), less the tax-free quota and its increases, plus the communal tax at the rate of the municipality, and the withholding already paid is credited against it. The calculator on this page estimates that final annual tax and divides it by 12; a pay slip shows the withholding, so the two monthly figures differ by design, and the difference is settled on the assessment notice (avertissement-extrait de rôle).

Sources: Moniteur belge, arrêté royal du 11 décembre 2025 modifiant, en matière de précompte professionnel, l’AR/CIR 92 (annexe III, revenus payés à partir du 1er janvier 2026) · SPF Finances, taux d’imposition (années de revenus 2025 et 2026)

White-collar or blue-collar: the social security base is not the same

The personal social security contribution is 13.07% of gross pay: 7.50% for pensions, 3.55% for health care, 1.15% for sickness benefits and 0.87% for unemployment. For manual workers and assimilated workers who fall under the private-sector holiday scheme, the contributions are computed on the gross pay increased by 8%, because their holiday pay comes not from the employer but from the National Annual Holidays Office or another holiday fund: raising the base by 8% pays, together with the ordinary pay, the contributions due on the simple holiday pay.

The calculator therefore offers a status selector on this page: white-collar (contributions on 100% of gross) or blue-collar (on 108%). On 36,000 EUR gross a year, the contributions are 3,536 EUR for a white-collar employee. A further 13.07% deduction applies to the part of the legal holiday pay that does not correspond to the normal pay of holiday days (the double holiday pay), outside the monthly salary computed here.

Sources: ONSS, instructions administratives 2026/3, les cotisations de sécurité sociale (base de calcul, pourcentage globalisé, 108 %) · ONSS, instructions administratives 2026/3, retenue sur le double pécule de vacances

Dependent children and marital quotient: the 2026 amounts

Every taxpayer has a tax-free quota of 11,550 EUR for 2026 income, the amount set by the law of 15 July 2026 and indexed by the notice of 12 August 2026. The tax computed on that quota at its own rates (25% up to 11,750 EUR, then 30% to 16,720, 40% to 27,860, 45% to 51,070, 50% above) is deducted from the tax on income. The quota rises with dependent children: 2,130 EUR for one child, 5,130 for two, 11,440 for three, 18,510 for four and 7,070 per further child, a child with a severe disability counting for two. In a jointly taxed couple each spouse holds the base quota and the children's increase goes to the spouse with the highest taxable income. When the tax is lower than the credit, the part of the children's increase that cannot be used becomes a refundable tax credit of at most 550 EUR per child for 2025 and 2026 income; the calculator shows it as a refundable credit added to the net.

A married couple or legal cohabitants of whom only one has professional income, or whose second income stays below 30% of the couple's professional income, benefit from the marital quotient: a share of the higher income, 30% of it and at most 11,780 EUR in 2026, is attributed to the other spouse and taxed separately from the first bracket, with a quota of its own, unless the couple's total tax would rise. The calculator computes the single-income case. On 36,000 EUR gross a year, a single person pays 5,338 EUR of tax, 3,809 EUR with two dependent children, a single-income couple 2,088 EUR and the same couple with two children 559 EUR, communal surcharge included. The reform lowers the quotient cap year after year from 2027: the household selector of the calculator applies the 2026 values.

Sources: Moniteur belge du 12 août 2026, avis relatif à l’indexation automatique en matière d’impôts sur les revenus, exercice d’imposition 2027 · Moniteur belge, loi du 15 juillet 2026 portant réforme de l’impôt des personnes physiques · Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992, art. 87, 88, 131 à 134 (copie fisconetplus, revenus 2025) · Moniteur belge, loi du 18 décembre 2025 portant des dispositions diverses (art. 42, crédit d’impôt enfants) · SPF Finances, enfants à charge (crédit d’impôt de 550 EUR par enfant pour les revenus 2025 et 2026, enfant handicapé comptant pour deux) · Chambre des représentants, DOC 56 1243/004, rapport de la première lecture (16 juin 2026)

Communal tax: from 0% to 9% depending on the municipality

Each municipality adds its own surcharge to the personal income tax, computed on the State tax. In the list published by the SPF Finances for assessment year 2025, the rate ranges from 0.0% (Knokke-Heist, De Panne, Koksijde) to 9.0% (Mesen). For 2026, the municipal regulations set 4.9% in the City of Brussels (down from 6.0% in 2025), 7% in Antwerp, 8% in Liège, 6.5% in Ghent, 8.5% in Charleroi, 8.5% in Namur, and 0% in Knokke-Heist, most of them for the years 2026 to 2031.

The calculator applies a representative 7% to the tax before the tax-free quota reduction, which overstates the surcharge slightly for the amounts where the quota is fully used; the figures of this page are therefore closest to a resident of Antwerp, and an employee living in Brussels or in a 0% municipality keeps more. On 36,000 EUR gross a year, the total tax shown for a single person is 5,338 EUR, communal surcharge included.

Sources: SPF Finances, taux de la taxe communale pour l’exercice d’imposition 2025 · Ville de Bruxelles, règlement-taxe 2026, impôt communal additionnel à l’IPP (4,9 %) · Stad Antwerpen, aanvullende personenbelasting 2026-2031 (7 %) · Ville de Liège, taxe communale additionnelle à l’IPP 2026-2031 (8 %) · Stad Gent, aanvullende gemeentebelasting op de personenbelasting 2026-2031 (6,5 %) · Ville de Charleroi, taxe communale additionnelle à l’IPP, exercices 2026 à 2031 (8,5 %) · Ville de Namur, taxe additionnelle à l’impôt des personnes physiques (8,5 %) · Gemeente Knokke-Heist, meerjarenplan 2026-2031 (aanslagvoet APB 0 %)

Work bonus: the reduction for low wages, computed month by month

The social work bonus reduces the 13.07% personal contribution for low monthly wages, in two components since 1 April 2024. From 1 September 2026, for white-collar employees, component A is 127.54 EUR a month for a reference wage of 2,937.93 EUR or less, then decreases (127.54 minus 0.2739 times the excess) to zero at 3,403.62 EUR; component B is 171.99 EUR up to 2,300.62 EUR, then decreases (171.99 minus 0.2699 times the excess) to zero at 2,937.93 EUR. Blue-collar workers have 137.74 and 185.75 EUR with their own coefficients. The reduction cannot exceed the contributions due, nor 3,594.36 EUR per calendar year from 1 July 2026; the tables changed four times in 2026 (1 March, 1 April after the increase in the guaranteed minimum income, 1 July with the indexation, 1 September), and the calculator applies each of the five tables to the months it covers, on a reference wage equal to the annual gross divided by twelve.

A fiscal work bonus follows: a tax credit of 33.14% of component A and, for 2026 income, 63% of component B (52.54% until 2025 income), capped at 2,000 EUR, imputed on the final tax, its excess being refunded. On 30,000 EUR gross a year (2,500 EUR a month), the calculator reduces the contributions by 2,796 EUR and the single person's net comes to 25,997 EUR, refundable credit included; above the upper threshold of component A (3,271.48 EUR a month in January and February, 3,336.98 from March to August, 3,403.62 from September 2026), neither bonus applies.

Sources: ONSS, instructions administratives 2026/3, bonus à l’emploi · ONSS, instructions administratives 2026/1, bonus à l’emploi (janvier à mars 2026) · ONSS, instructions administratives 2026/2, bonus à l’emploi (avril à juin 2026) · Moniteur belge, loi du 15 juillet 2026 portant réforme de l’impôt des personnes physiques (art. 96 et 97) · Moniteur belge du 12 août 2026, avis d’indexation automatique, exercice d’imposition 2027 (plafond du crédit) · Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992, art. 52, 7°, 289ter/1 et 304 § 2 (copie fisconetplus, revenus 2025)

Benchmarks: guaranteed minimum income, average wage, meal vouchers

The guaranteed average minimum monthly income (RMMMG) for workers aged 18 and over is 2,189.81 EUR since 1 April 2026 (collective agreement no. 43/18 of the National Labour Council, a 35 EUR gross increase, 35.7 EUR once indexed), after 2,154.11 EUR from 1 January 2026. It is not a strict monthly minimum wage: certain sums paid over the year, such as a year-end bonus or a thirteenth month, count towards it. Working time may not exceed 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, and every company has had to reduce its weekly working time to 38 hours since 1 January 2003.

The average gross monthly wage of full-time employees was 4,076 EUR in 2022 (companies of ten people or more, some sectors excluded, October reference, periodic bonuses included and exceptional bonuses such as the thirteenth month excluded). Meal vouchers are not part of the gross salary computed here: they escape contributions and tax only when all the conditions are met together: granted under a collective or written agreement, not in replacement of pay or of another benefit, one voucher per day actually worked, issued in the employee's name, valid twelve months, employer contribution of at most 8.91 EUR per voucher since 1 January 2026 and employee contribution of at least 1.09 EUR; the employee share is deducted on the pay statement.

Sources: Conseil national du travail, salaire minimum (RMMMG depuis le 1er avril 2026) · Conseil national du travail, montants annexés à la CCT n° 43 (version du 1er avril 2026) · Conseil national du travail, communiqué du 24 mars 2026 (CCT n° 43/18) · Statbel, salaires mensuels bruts moyens des salariés à temps plein 2000-2022 (be.STAT) · Statbel, le salaire brut moyen en Belgique (définition de la série, communiqué archivé) · SPF Emploi, durée du travail et diminution de la durée de travail · ONSS, instructions administratives 2026/3, titres-repas