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Hello TonyG001,

Kindly note that a new topic has been created on the Belgium forum with your post. With a stand-alone thread, all relevant replies will be gathered in one place.

You'll also have the added advantage of your thread benefiting from more visibility and the chances of receiving replies being increased.

Best of luck,

Diksha

Dear Tony,
The package you outline is a standard Belgian salary, 13 .92 months plus car and meal tickets.

You should ask about income tax. The standard rates are rather fierce, but there is a concession for "executives" transferred temporarily into Belgium. You may not strictly be an executive but if they cold recruit someone locally they would have done that (because it's cheaper).
People transferred in, or recruited outside, to be here temporarily usually get  a package including  housing, and  cost of living allowances reflecting  the (usually) higher costs here. These allowances are tax free and this makes a significant difference to the employee. If the employee has an international job and travels (to other company) facilities or clients , then he/she will only be taxed on the proportion of time spent in Belgium.

Michael

HI Michael

Many thanks for your reply, much appreciated. In the meantime the company "upped" the salary to 63.220 Euro = 4,541 gross monthly

I'm starting to think this will be ok for my wife and I to live a decent life style in Belgium

In the meantime can someone advise good areas o live. I will be working in Zeebrugge port so would be good to not be to far away and maybe some "Rental Agencies" web addresses to start looking at apartments to rent

Tony

Hello Tony,
Listen to Michael's advice.  Tax is really high here in Belgium.  Generally about 50%.
Good luck with the transfer.

HWS

Hello HWS

Thanks for your msg, my company told me they will apply for a special tax regime for expat, but since I am on a local contract they cannot guarantee this will be accepted, but if accepted my net income will become a few 100 euro per month higher

Any comments on that

But they wrote the contract, Tony. It can certainly work if you are recruited abroad to come here to do something they can't find a local for.
Good luck.

Here are the conditions:

- He cannot benefit from Belgian nationality. People with dual nationality, in particular Belgian nationality, are excluded.
- He must be directly engaged abroad by a Belgian company or must be seconded from abroad or be transferred to a Belgian entity of an international group.
- He must be a manager, which means that he must have a managerial function or a function which requires special knowledge and responsibilities and which cannot be easily found on the Belgian labor market.
- To assess these conditions, it is necessary to examine the following elements in particular:
1) How many people are under the authority of the executive?
2) What is the content of his job description and what are the responsibilities relating to his job?
3) What diploma does the executive have and what experience does he already have?
4) What salary will the executive receive?

In addition, the special status can also be granted to company directors, which is aimed in particular at company directors with real and permanent functions.

The cadre must maintain the center of their vital interests abroad. In this regard, it is important that the candidate can demonstrate that he maintains links with abroad. The following elements are, in this context, important:
- The partner and the children live abroad
- He has real estate abroad
- He owns real estate abroad
- He has a life insurance contract and a foreign bank account
- The children are educated abroad or are in an international school in Belgium
- The rental contract for housing in Belgium is temporary or provides for a short notice period
- His contract in Belgium is a temporary contract. However, just because someone signs an indefinite contract does not mean that they should be refused special status.
- The employer and the worker must together submit, within 6 months of the month following the month in which the expatriate started his activities in Belgium, an application for status with the Brussels Foreigners service.

I did not read relocation as meaning he is Belgian, although I agree it does perhaps imply that. But would a Belgian be asking about Belgium?
All your conditions are valid. I ignored them to simplify the answer. all he has to do is ask. The employer will know the conditions which apply.

Salary really depends on your field, years of experience, etc. That 3800€ month would leave you a -+2300€-ish net. which in BE standards it is not bad at all. But really depends on your situation, expectations goals, etc.
If you manage to obtain the expat status about -+150-200€ more.
But being expat would not help you if you plan to settle in BE/EU as there is no benefits towards permanent residency, you need to pay taxes as a local to be able to apply for permanent residency after 5 years of working in BE.

This is the most accurate tool in my case to estimate gross vs net :