°µÍø½ûÇø

With that you will have a comfortable life. With two of us we bring in €3000 a month run two cars and have a 3 bedroom house

Laura,
Is this 3000 gross or net? Also what is the rent for the 3 bedroom house?

3000 net. We have a morgate its about €800 per month. Our neighbours rent and its basically the same house they pay about €750 but it gets more expensive the closer to city centres etc

Hi mindgutter,

Important tip --> this is the kind of salary that we do not talk when we want to have peace in the neighborhood ...

The average wage for Belgium is €3,258 gross --> I think you're more than able to draw your own conclusions. For cons, I do not know the statutes of your contract but I hope you have taken your precautions against annual taxes. Otherwise, it will be very bad ...

Now to tell you if this will be enough to have a relaxed family life, this will depend on your lifestyle. It is not enough for a castle life. But that's enough to not bother with respect to bills at month end ...

You have to understand something, it is that the European mentality is not like the American mentality. We have a saying that to live happy, live hidden ... So no glitz

wow, just wow. That is most certainly a salary I would not confess to earning on an open forum if I didn't want a whole bunch of new 'friends'. Belgians in general do not discuss salaries, even with their closest friends. But yes, you will be able to live a fairly comfortable life on that, depending on what tax is taken off and your lifestyle.

Hi,
Thank you so much for your reply. Can you help me understand what type of annual tax precautions I can take?

The tax rates in Belgium are extremely complicated to understand. It all depends on your status. Citizen, Xpat, foreign resident etc, and how much you earn. The best advice I can give is to ask the company who will be paying you that salary how much you will have to hand over to the Belgian version of Uncle Sam, they should know this.

Hi,

Like "another Sean" just tell you, such information is not disclosed on a forum like this. And if as you say, when you touch a salary like yours, you have enough knowledge in financial management ... But the easiest is that you take contact with the tax department in Belgium, they will relish to explain the situation.



Regards

Another Sean wrote:

wow, just wow. That is most certainly a salary I would not confess to earning on an open forum if I didn't want a whole bunch of new 'friends'.

hehehe, so true! I would rather make a throw away account for this.

nailpainter wrote:

Another Sean wrote:

wow, just wow. That is most certainly a salary I would not confess to earning on an open forum if I didn't want a whole bunch of new 'friends'.

hehehe, so true! I would rather make a throw away account for this.

I actually meant to say that I would not discuss how much I earn, with anyone, anytime, period. At least all people will be informed on a need to know basis. There are only 4, maybe 5 or 6 people that know how much I earn. Myself, my wife, the person that manages the payroll at the company that I work for, and of course the person in the tax department that decides if I have paid too much or to little and authorises the refund or otherwise and the person at the bank who granted me a credit card.

You're absolutely right. It's the same for me. By cons, just a little board if you did not already, take a subscription with "test-achats" / "test-aankoop". The magazine is full of interesting financial information ... Because thou hast to make you realize that the service tax is devious ...

Nice salary... Now like the rest I'd keep that under wraps... If you can still edit your post still I'd remove or diminish the amount. Your Belgian salary will be well in line with your US if not a (little/lot) better... Here there is no health insurance payments of $2500 plus for a family of four. As for rental rates it really depends on where you live. Like the US there are more expensive areas. I live well into the country and have a decent little 3 bedroom house and we pay 650€ a month.  We, my spouse and I make less than half what you will, and have a better life here than we'd ever be able to have in the US. You will probably not want to return if you really immerse yourself in the culture and make European friends. Your mindset will change...
A word of caution... ask your company in regards to the taxes... With that salary when you report to the US for income taxes it is most likely WAY over the threshold (+ - $100K)and you will pay taxes TWICE. Once to Belgium and once to the US for the OVER the threshold. The US is a citizen based income tax country unlike the rest of the world being a resident based... This will be important when you consider this, so you are not blindsided by penalties and undisclosed pitfalls.
What this means is even though you will pay taxes here you are still liable to the US for taxes over and above the threshold. If your company is a US based company they are well aware of this and should be able to competently guide you... Just to make you aware...
I am a US citizen and so am worried about the potentially catastrophic fall-out of all these issues in regards to retirement. I am worried about buying property here or even the pension I will eventually receive from Belgium even though it isn't connected in any way to the US.

Zipper's recommendations are spot on; excellent.   You know Uncle Sam is going to want his part.

Secondly, you probably should be a bit caution about posting an income in a public forum.

Another thought is is your company going to pay for private schools for your children, or is that coming out of your salary? There are no english primary language schools here and adjustment for your kids will include learning one of the primary languages here either Flemish or French depending on where you live...If they are life will be even better than you could hope for as they are quite pricey.