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Where Taxpayers and Advisers Meet

Belgian taxes advice, please

seank
Posts:2
Joined:Fri Apr 08, 2022 7:02 am
Belgian taxes advice, please

Postby seank » Fri Apr 08, 2022 7:08 am

My daughter has worked for GSK for 20 years, but died last November.
Ever since, I've battled GSK to release death in service benefits via their group insurance.
I've had to get certificates of inheritance from the Belgian Gov't because her last 9 years were in employment in Belgium.
Everything now seems subject to "withholding tax". Can anyone explain this to me, please?

GSK have been useless. They asked the health & safety manager to progress matters, but she's clueless.

My daughter was a UK national, still domiciled here.

darthblingbling
Posts:698
Joined:Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:09 pm

Re: Belgian taxes advice, please

Postby darthblingbling » Fri Apr 08, 2022 11:14 am

Hi, I've recently dealt with a death in service query, but it relates solely to the UK tax position for someone that died overseas as the. Was the payment made from GSK in the UK? I.e., was UK PAYE withheld? Assuming it has been paid out

Generally speaking, if the payment is from the insurer then it should not be subject to income tax. What can sometimes happen is that the insurer can refuse to pay out or only pay out a certain amount if the policy only covers up to a certain amount. However as the death in service payment is usually a contractual obligation of the employer, the excess would need to be met by them and is typically caught as employment income and therefore subject to PAYE (but not usually NIC).

You may struggle to find a Belgian tax expert on these forums as it's primarily a UK tax forum. Not sure if your looking for advice here or in Belgium.

seank
Posts:2
Joined:Fri Apr 08, 2022 7:02 am

Re: Belgian taxes advice, please

Postby seank » Fri Apr 08, 2022 11:26 am

I live in the UK.
My daughter moved to Belgium 10 years ago to continue working for GSK.
All payments are due from GSK Belgium but they are clueless.
AG Insurance is their provider but they wouldn't communicate with me for 4 months until I obtained a certificate of inheritance from the Belgian Gov't. They've had that 2 weeks now, but still no communications.

Where could I go for advice, please?

Many thanks.

darthblingbling
Posts:698
Joined:Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:09 pm

Re: Belgian taxes advice, please

Postby darthblingbling » Fri Apr 08, 2022 12:56 pm

I work for one of the big 10 firms and we all generally have member firms that operate in most countries worldwide.

As such any of the bigger firms should be able to help as they would refer to their Belgian firm, but this may cost a fair penny.

Outside that I'm not aware of a similar tax forum that deals with Belgian tax sorry.


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