Leaving Belgium: what we have been able to verify, and what remains to be established

The pages of the Federal Public Service Finance dealing with departure from Belgium are protected by an automatic verification that prevents them from being consulted by a tool. We were therefore unable to extract a citable, dated and verifiable text from them.

We could have reproduced what secondary sources say about them. We do not: a tax rule copied without its official source is exactly what this site refuses to do, and a silent profile is better than a wrong one.

Still to be established with the Federal Public Service Finance: the existence and scope of any tax specific to departure, the date on which tax residency ends, the return to be filed for the year of departure, the treatment of Belgian-source income received after departure, and the assets that remain reportable.

Three points do not depend on Belgian law and can be prepared right away. Ending your residence is proven by facts — housing, family, activity, accounts —, it is not something you simply declare. Bilateral tax treaties settle cases of dual residence, and you need to know which one applies. Finally, the automatic exchange of information makes accounts opened abroad visible, whatever the country of departure.

These three points are the part of the work that does not depend on any particular administration, and it is the part that can be prepared earliest. The rest is handled with a practitioner from the country you are leaving.