Decode

The 80% rule, explained without the spreadsheet.

Belgian directors hear about the 80% rule the day they finally sit down with their accountant. By then they have usually missed a decade of contribution room. Here is the rule in plain language.

Hugo VermeulenTax & pension · Warren8 April 20266 min read

The ceiling.

Belgian law caps the total retirement benefit (legal pijler 1 plus supplementary pijler 2) at 80% of the final gross salary, indexed over a normal career duration. That ceiling sets the maximum corporate-deductible contribution to an IPT or groepsverzekering in a given year.

The room you did not know you had.

For most management-company owners, the 80% ceiling has not been fully used in prior years. That unused room is recoverable via backservice: catch-up contributions for years gone by. The right size of backservice is not a round number; it is calculated against real salary history.

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Why pension is broken, and why HR has to act now.

Pension is the most expensive benefit a Belgian employer pays for, and the one employees value least. Not because it is unimportant, but because nobody can see, feel, or compare what they actually own. A practical look at why that happened, why it broke, and what HR can do this quarter.

Anna De Smet · 11 May 2026

Decode4 min

What "Tak 21" actually means, in four minutes.

Tak 21 is a tax category for life-insurance contracts where your capital is guaranteed. The bank promises you cannot lose your principal. In exchange, the return is low. Often below inflation.

Anna De Smet · 22 April 2026

Analysis7 min

The half-percent fee that eats a quarter of your pension.

Total cost of ownership in a Belgian groepsverzekering routinely sits in the 0.8 to 1.2% range. Over a career, that compounds into 20 to 25% of the final capital. Most members never see the number.

Marc Dubois · 20 March 2026