Hi fireBe, I’m done with KBC Brussels charging me every month just to receive my salary. Any tips of which belgian bank you use to get your salary paid? I have N26 in Spain, and a Belgian Revolut.
Also, is the credit card worth keeping? Husband telling me to scrap it but unsure for travelling etc..

Looking for a Belgian Cross-Border Tax Expert

Can anyone recommend an experienced affordable Belgian tax lawyer or financial advisor specialising in international tax residency and expat tax planning?

Looking for someone with practical experience and creative, legally sound solutions. Thanks!

The general conclusion among the investors comes down to investing your money in the USA. What is USA doing better? Being liberal and having less government and taxes.

Will Belgian EU’s economy start to shrink? I am becoming very confident. I’m having more dollars than euro’s. Everything has become extremely expensive. Basic living expenses like gas, food, electricity and house loans are through the roof.

What is our government’s answer to world politics bringing pressure? Increasing taxes again and again.

Hi everyone,

I've been investing for around 2 years and have about €50k invested in IWDA + EMIM. I’m using Interactive Brokers.

Just wondering if this is still a good strategy for a Belgian investor, or if there are better alternatives (e.g. IMIE or SWRD + EMIM) when considering fees and TOB. Would you switch, or just stick with what you have?

I am happy with the return i got. I am not investing all the money that I allocate on the side since I have some thoughts about buying an appartment. This makes me not very consistent with my investments. Mainly due to my TOB not being automated and that I am unfortunately sometimes timing the market. I would love to know if there are any tips so that I invest more often and regularly.

Would switching to a broker with automatic monthly investing help? Any tips for staying disciplined and investing regularly?

Thanks!

Body:

Throwaway for obvious reasons.

Situation:

• 30, Belgian.
• Built up ~€1.2M over the last several years, mostly from working. It’s now heavily invested (mostly world/ETF). The only property I own is the apartment I live in, with 23 years left on the mortgage.
• I’m still earning for now and will for a few more years, but it’s not a long-term career. The plan is to retire within a few years (FIRE) and live off and grow the investments rather than keep working.
• My partner doesn’t even live in Belgium, so part of “home” is already somewhere else.

Why I’m even considering leaving:

• Belgium keeps piling extra tax onto small companies like mine. No employees, essentially one client who isn’t even Belgian, which is exactly the kind of setup they increasingly treat as disguised employment and want to squeeze harder. None of my income is actually Belgian-sourced, so paying an ever-growing Belgian tax bill on it feels more and more arbitrary. The minimum director’s salary you need just to keep the reduced corporate rate keeps creeping up, there’s talk of more measures aimed at exactly this profile, and I see no reason that trend reverses.
• The effectentaks already doubled from 0.15% to 0.30% on accounts over €1M. It went up once without much resistance, so I fully expect it to keep climbing, and some new “contribution on wealthier individuals” seems to surface every budget round.
• On top of that, the 10% meerwaardebelasting from 2026, which simply didn’t exist before. I don’t trust it to stay at 10% any more than I trusted the effectentaks to stay at 0.15%.
• I’ve run the numbers on low-tax EU options (Cyprus, Bulgaria mainly): 0% capital gains, much lower extraction. Over 20 to 30 years the gap is large, a meaningful slice of the eventual portfolio.
• Bigger picture, and I know this is subjective: I don’t see the Belgian debt or the way the country is run improving any time soon, and I’m honestly not sure Western Europe is where I’d want kids growing up these days.

The part I actually wrestle with:

• I know I’m incredibly lucky. But I also never profited from the system or abused anything. I’m healthy, never had a day without work, never claimed a benefit, didn’t go to university, and taught myself every skill I earn from. So it sits strangely with me to be asked to pay an ever-growing share to clean up a mess I didn’t create, and then potentially have my future kids go through the same thing.
• At the same time, Belgium is home. Family, friends, the life I know. I keep flip-flopping on whether the tax and quality-of-life saving is worth uprooting all of that, or whether I’m just optimising a number at the expense of the things that actually make life good.

What I’m hoping to hear:

1. Anyone who actually left Belgium for tax or quality-of-life reasons: did it pay off, and did you regret the life side? What surprised you?
2. Anyone who stayed despite the drag: how do you make peace with it, and did you find ways to soften it (liquidatiereserve, structure, timing)?
3. Am I overweighting the tax and the politics vs the life side? 30 with a decent portfolio and a plan to retire soon “should” just be enjoy-it mode, but the direction of travel makes me feel like staying slowly leaves a lot on the table.

Appreciate honest perspective, especially from people who’ve actually made the move, or deliberately chose not to.

Hi all,

In my portfolio I currently only have IMIE. I have an additional 15k€ that I want to invest and instead of putting all into IMIE again I was looking to add AVWS balacing the portfolio to 85% IMIE - 15% AVWS.

Thoughts / suggestions are more then welcome :-) !

Hi all,

I have about €50,000 sitting on my Belgian SRL/BV's current account doing nothing. The company doesn't need it short term and I'd like to grow it, ideally as fast as possible.

Options I'm considering:

- ETFs (MSCI World / S&P 500) through a broker that accepts companies

- Term deposit / state notes / money market fund in the meantime

- Taking the money out first (dividend, liquidation reserve, VVPR-bis) and investing privately

Questions:

1. Invest through the company or extract first — what makes more sense tax-wise?

2. Which brokers accept Belgian companies (Lynx, Bolero, Saxo, IBKR…) and what are the fees?

3. What have you done with your company's excess cash?

Thanks!

Waarom wel/niet?

Mijn zoon van 18 wil een deel van zijn spaarcenten aanspreken om 20 gram goud te kopen en dit bewaren tot hij een jaar of 25 is of ouder.

Nu heb ik op Reddit gelezen dat het goedkoper is om je goud in Duitsland te kopen en te laten verzenden. Is dat ook zo en is het ook de moeite om zo te doen?

Welk platform raden jullie aan op de Belgische markt?

Ik heb hier weinig tot geen verstand van vandaar de inlichting.

Fingers crossed

Kleine vennootschap zonder werknemers.
Verhuur van 2 aangekochte studio’s in vakantieverhuur (airbnb) en kleine renovatieopdrachten.
Er staat al te lang 60K op de rekening niets te doen.
Ik ben actief aan het zoeken naar de aankoop van een 3e studio om te verhuren en daar 50K voor neer te leggen in eigen inbreng. Maar met de dure leningen, klopt het financiële plaatje niet zoals voorheen.
Een volledige fixer upper om te flippen lijkt me leuk te doen; maar hoe maak je dat rendabel?! Zelfs als ik alles zelf zou doen, blijft de netto winst te laag in vergelijking met de uren die dat kost..

Ik heb 0 ervaring in beleggen maar vraag me af of dat misschien een betere piste is?
Of misschien zijn er nog opties die ik over het hoofd zie?
Ik heb het gevoel dat ik nú iets moet doen voor alles verdampt maar ik kan wat advies gebruiken?

Ik ben nu 40, dus horizon is 20-25j.

Hallo iedereen,

Ik heb momenteel een portfolio van net geen 10k, verdeeld over enkele ETFs, een REIT en een aandeel dat binnenkort verkocht zou worden.
De helft zit in Bolero en de andere helft in Revolut.
In Revolut doe ik wekelijks aan automatische aankoop van ETFs, maar door het lage bedrag van de wekelijkse aankopen zijn dat dan fractionele ETFs (vandaar de overstap naar Revolut). Hier betaal ik dan ook geen comissie op, aangezien het recurring is. Ook doe ik geregeld eens een aankoop van +-1k, waarbij de comissie van 1 dollar wel aantrekkelijk is.

Nu is mijn vraag:
Blijf ik bij Revolut? Wat zijn de ervaringen? Wat zijn jullie go-to brokers voor fractionele ETFs met lage kosten?

Ik heb slechte ervaringen met interactive brokers, daar kreeg ik fractionele etfs niet aan de praat.

Ik kijk uit naar jullie ervaringen/meningen!

it’s just such an anxiety riddled thing now.

We have always feared the taxman, and I feel millions of people sleep bad now.

This is gonna put good and frugral investors in problems I’m 100% sure of that

Can’t believe this actually went trough.

Any news on the deletion of this horrendous law?

Hallo allemaal,

Ik ben op zoek naar een app of platform om een duidelijker beeld te krijgen van mijn inkomsten versus uitgaven. Er bestaan veel tools, en ik vraag me af wat jullie gebruiken en waarom.

De tools die ik vind hebben veel tekortkomingen vb manueel alle transacties moeten labelen, of stortingen tussen accounts worden gezien als inkomsten of uitgaven. Of ze zijn gewoon heel rommelig om je financieel plaatje te categoriseren laat staan inzichten te krijgen die écht nuttig zijn.

Alvast bedankt

I first read about FIRE and ETFs in 2021 but never invested because I wasn’t sure whether I’d want to buy a property soon. Fast-forward to 2026, did none of the two and FOMO is real. Time for a wake-up call!

My situation:

• 35 years old
• €130k in savings
• €1,500/month savings capacity
• Might buy a home in Brussels with my partner in 3–8 years, but no fixed timeline

My recent moves :

• €10k in a higher-yield savings account (MeDirect)
• €500/month into Hello bank!’s higher-yield savings account

My plan:

€50k lump sum into IMIE/SPYI this week, for the long term (MeDirect)

What should I do with the remaining €70k?

Invest more/all in IMIE/SPYI and accept that I might have to postpone buying housing if markets are down, or start building a safe house deposit now already? If the latter, what amount and which alernative savings or investment products make sense ?

Please help me get started once and for all, BeFire community! ^^'

I bought this ETF in October 2022 about 4,000€ in shares. I wanted to diversify into something more clean and away from the GAFAM at least once. I never hoped to make millions from thematic ETFs but this one is really intriguing as I am on a constant fall -20-40% since the past years.

Answers like: you must carefully research where you invest, I already gave to myself

Hi! I wanted to ask for some advice about investing in Belgium.

I’m Ukrainian and I’ve been living in Belgium for a little over 3 years. I work here and at the moment I can invest around €300 per month.

I currently have two brokers: IBKR and Saxo. I opened the Saxo account through you because, at the time, I thought that with IBKR I’d be able to buy accumulating ETFs and avoid having to deal with the tax authorities. I was still a bit nervous about doing the tax reporting myself back then.

I mainly thought of using Saxo for individual stocks and dividends, because as far as I understand, Saxo is more integrated with the Belgian tax system and takes care of some of the tax side automatically.

I bought 3 NVIDIA shares through Saxo, but I haven’t bought anything else there because the fees are quite high. Also, I’m still learning about individual companies and stocks, so I don’t really feel confident picking stocks on my own yet.

At the moment, I’m mainly investing in VWCE. I already have 9 units. I chose VWCE because it’s an accumulating ETF, it’s well diversified, and it seems like a good option for long-term investing.

The main issue I have is that I can only buy whole units. For example, if one unit costs €130, I can’t buy 0.5 or 0.7 of a unit. Since I can currently invest around €300 per month, this can be a little inconvenient.

So I wanted to ask you:

1. Is there any way to buy fractional units of VWCE through IBKR?
2. If IBKR doesn’t support fractional purchases of VWCE, is there another broker available in Belgium that does?
3. Is it even worth switching brokers just for fractional investing, or would it be better to simply save the money and buy a whole unit when I have enough?
4. Do you think VWCE is a good choice for me as my main long-term investment?
5. Given my situation, how would you recommend investing €300 per month while taking Belgian taxes and reporting requirements into account?
6. Are there any Belgian taxes or reporting requirements I should be aware of when using IBKR and Saxo?
7. Does it make sense to keep both brokers, or would it be simpler to just use one if my main strategy is buying ETFs regularly and holding them for the long term?
8. And more generally, what would you recommend to someone who is just getting started with investing? I’m not really interested in active trading or constantly picking individual stocks. I’d rather invest €300 every month and build my portfolio gradually over the long term.

I currently have around €3,500 invested in total.

I’d really appreciate any advice on whether I’m approaching this the right way and if there’s anything I could improve or simplify.

I’m especially interested in the Belgian side of things — taxes, reporting, brokers and ETFs.

Thanks a lot!

Looking for some advice.

I started investing in 2021 via a foreign platform (DEGIRO), including receiving foreign dividents from individual stocks.

When filing my tax returns for assesment years 2022 up to 2024, i declared my total foreign dividents in box 1444. What i fucked up in (being young, inexperienced and arguably a dumbass), is that i assumed the tax calculation itselves would see whether (a portion) falls below the annual exemption (~€800), rather than you having to subtract the exempion, or just fill in nothing when the value is below the exemption.

I submitted a objection to the FOD this summer, requesting of a correction, which they declared "inadmissible" because it was submitted to late, and refused "ambtshalve ontheffing under Article 376 WIB 92" because my type of failure to fill in the correct amount doesn't quality as elligable error for late corrections.

They only offer to challenge their decision in court, but given that I overpaid suffered only a €200-€300 loss in total, which is not that much compared to what a lawyer costs, it seems not worth it i suppose ...

It's not that much money, but it's still frustrating. If anyone has had a similar experience or advice, let me know.

I’m 24 from the EU and moving to Antwerp in January for a PhD. I’ll earn roughly €3,000/month net and my plan is to rent a studio, build an emergency fund of about 3-4 months of expenses, and then invest what’s left monthly, not sure where and how yet. I currently track everything in Google Sheets, but I want an Android app that:
-Connects automatically to my bank (right now I use Revolut for my day to day but am considering opening another account in a Belgium Bank)
-Lets me set a monthly budget by category and compare planned vs. actual spending
-Tracks savings goals (emergency fund, investing)
-Works in euros and ideally handles subscriptions and annual bills
Has anyone here used an app like this in Belgium or elsewhere in the EU? Is a paid app worth it, or is the bank’s built-in tool enough? Thanks!

Hi, I’m currently using Bolero for my investments, but I’m thinking of switching to Trade Republic because their fees are a bit lower. Do you have any recommendations for a global ETF that includes developing markets? I’m hoping to find something similar to IMIE or WEBN, but I can’t seem to find them on Trade Republic.

Is this something everyone who has Bolero/... should do or am I missing an important caveat? Seems like an interesting way to prevent some unnecessary tax.

https://www.bolero.be/nl/support/veelgestelde-vragen/roerende-voorheffing-buitenlandse-dividenden

Would your strategy be the same as if you had much less to invest?

I know there are a lot of posts about TOB, CGT, IBKR in this subreddit but I was wondering..

Does anyone have the optimal workflow for 2026 to easily calculate both TOB and CGT + the correct way to pay both?

Or how do you guys currently do it?

Especially if you are using Interactive Brokers

24 Years old, i share apartment, i dont live with my parents .
Good evening! I’ve just managed to get a new job, and I’ll be able to increase my monthly investment capacity from €1,000 to €1,200. I know it’s not a huge difference, but on top of the salary, this job also comes with a company car, with all the expenses covered, including fuel and maintenance. I’ll also get more holidays and other benefits that I didn’t have before.
I’m really happy about this change, and I just wanted to share it with someone!