05/12/16

Deloitte Belgium releases 7th edition of its European Salary Survey

Deloitte Belgium has just released the seventh edition of its European Salary Survey. Organised for the seventh year in a row and carried out in Belgium and 18 other European countries, the report summarises the most pressing findings and highlights with regard to salary costs, net income, net spendable income as well as taxation of passive income and headquarter companies. This year, the survey shows that Belgian employers see their social security contributions decrease especially for the lowest wages thanks to the tax shift. Belgium remains however one of the most expensive countries for medium and higher salary levels.

Social security contributions will indeed gradually decrease towards a base rate of 25% by 2019. Even lower rates will apply for the lowest wages. Belgium now takes the 4th position of most expensive countries across all salary levels (instead of 2nd position in 2015) as a result of the tax shift.  For lower salary levels, Belgium even ranks in 7th position (i.e. in the middle of the ranking) of most expensive countries.

In comparison with the other European countries, which remain remarkably stable over the years, it should be noted that the Belgian tax and social security system has been subject to numerous changes, year after year”, says Patrick Derthoo, Tax Partner at Deloitte Belgium. “This is not going to change in the coming years, considering the next steps of the tax shift”.

The full report can be downloaded as a PDF via this link.

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