Tax Return: Checklist

Hopefully, you have put all the documents you received in one envelope or box: your salary or pension statement for last year, certificates for donations to charity etc …. Which documents and certificates do you need to prepare your income tax return: Earnings: salary statement; holiday pay statement (if not paid by your employer); unemployment benefit statement; illness or occupational injury benefit statement pension statement; …

Tax Return: Help!?

Don’t get daunted by the tax return; it looks more complicated than it really is. How difficult is it really? For most, filing a tax return should not be that difficult. It is just a question of copying the numbers from one piece of paper onto another one. Make no mistake: that brown envelope releases the inner procrastinator in you and on the last day …

Tax Return: The Taxman sends a Tax Proposal

Over 50% of half of all taxpayers do not have to file a tax return. The taxman already has all the information that they would just copy in their tax forms. This is the case for pensioners who do not have a side job, people with an invalidity or unemployment allowance, students over 18 who have some income, e.g. from a student job; even employees …

Tax Return: Filing on Paper

Let’s open that brown envelope; what will you find? The tax return You cannot miss it; it is the document that has little text and columns in red. You can find the model here in Dutch and in French.  It resembles a lotto form, and just like a lotto form it will be scanned. Just seeing it is quite disheartening, with columns and codes to …

Tax Return: Filing Online

To file online, you log in with your electronic id card, a token or via Itsme. Itsme is a Belgian app that you can use to identify yourself with the tax office and other government services. You download the app from the AppStore or Google Play and you activate it once with your bank card or electronic identity card. With Itsme, you can login to …

Tax Return: on Paper or Online?

Why file online? What are the advantages of filing online? first of all, you have more time to file, until 15 July. it is more user-friendly than completing the paper form. You work on a traditional tax return where you see clearly what you are doing. If you file on paper, you have to make a draft first and then copy the codes and numbers …

Tax Return: When do I need to file?

The paper tax return must be filed by 30 June. This means the tax return must hit the letterbox of the scanning centre in Jambes or in Ledeberg on that day. Don’t leave it until the last minute. Putting the tax return in the mail on the 28th may be too late. If you forgot the deadline, you can file online until 15 July. Plan ahead; …

Tax return: Couples and Children

In Belgium, the tax return is a tax return for the whole family. Parents file jointly and declare their children’s income, unless they receive maintenance or had a student job. Filing jointly or separately? Spouses and registered partners (in Belgium they are called legal cohabitants / wettelijke samenwonenden) don’t get to choose whether they file jointly or separately. Couples who live together but have not …

Tax Return: is this your first time?

If this is the first time you file a tax return, here are a few things you need to know. The first time, you will receive a brown envelope with a tax return and some documents to help you file (see Filing on Paper). but you will be encouraged to access your online tax return (tax-on-web) and activate you online mailbox “my e-box” for all …

2022 Tax Return: the Guide

Post Covid, many of us have gone back to work with no desire to be back full time. We all have more or less enjoyed working from home and the government is trying to make life a bit easier with some tax measures (see “Taxes in Corona Times”). It sounds worse than it is. 40% of all the taxpayers fill out less than ten codes. …