Income Tax - Retirement Savings Contributions (deduction)

Verified 17 April 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Do you have a retirement savings product? In some cases, you can deduct the contributions paid from your overall net income. To qualify, you must indicate the amount of contributions paid on your income tax return. We tell you the rules to know.

Retirement savings products are savings products long-term. During the investment phase, you can, in some cases, deduct contributions that you pay.

You will have to wait for your retirement (except exceptional release case) to collect a life annuity or a capital. That money will then be available taxable.

You may be eligible for the deduction of contributions you have made for the following retirement savings products, subject to conditions:

Warning  

certain contributions paid as a result of self-employment are only deductible from business income concerned (industrial and commercial benefits - BIC or non-commercial profits - BNC for example).

The deductible contributions are the ones you pay voluntarily on an individual basis.

FYI  

Contributions paid to buy back retiring quarters are deductible under special conditions. They should not be included in deductible contributions to retirement savings plans.

The amounts paid in a year are deductible from the taxable income of the year concerned, within a ceiling fixed for each member of the tax shelter.

For example, amounts paid in 2023 are deductible from your 2023 taxable income (2024 reporting). The amounts paid in 2024 will be deductible from your 2024 taxable income (2025 reporting).

FYI  

the ceiling available for contributions paid in 2024 is indicated on your tax notice 2023.

If you do not use all or part of your deduction limit, you can carry forward to the next 3 years.

Example :

If you have not used your 2022 income tax deduction limit, you can use it to increase your 2023, 2024 or 2025 income tax deduction limit.

If you have not used your 2023 income tax deduction limit, you can use it to increase your 2024, 2025 or 2026 income tax deduction limit.

The amount of the ceiling depends on your situation:

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You're a salaried employee

The maximum deduction limit for pension contributions is 10% wages and salaries reported on your 2023 tax return.

The amount of the ceiling is at least of €4,399 and maximum of €35,194.

The amount of the ceiling is reduced the following:

  • Contributions to supplementary pension schemes made compulsory in the company for employees (employers’ share for its tax-free amount and employees’ share for its amount deductible from salary)
  • Employer’s contribution to the Collective Retirement Savings Plan (Perco), the Collective Retirement Savings Plan (Perco) or the Compulsory Retirement Savings Plan (Pero) up to the company’s income tax-exempt amount
  • Entitlements recorded on the CET (Time Savings Account) or, in the absence of the CET, monetized, exempt leave days (up to 10 days) allocated by the employee to a Perco, Supplementary company Pension Plan or Pereco.

The ceiling is increased the unused deduction limit (or part of the limit) in the previous 3 years, from oldest to newest.

Example :

You didn't use up your entire deduction limit in 2022 and 2023.

Your 2024 contributions are deducted as a priority from your 2024 limit.

The amount that exceeds your 2024 cap is deducted from the remaining portion of your 2022 cap, and then from the remaining portion of your 2023 cap.

FYI  

Payments in a PER: titleContent sums from wage savings (profit-sharing, participation, employer contributions) are exempt from income tax.

You're independent

The ceiling is equal to 10% professional income (BIC: titleContent, NBC: titleContent, BA: titleContent) reported on the 2023 tax return.

The ceiling amount is at minimum of €4,399 and the maximum of €35,194.

The amount of the ceiling is reduced contributions voluntary schemes for self-employed persons and managers, for the amount deductible from profit or loss, without taking into account their proportion corresponding to 15% the share of taxable profit between one and eight times the annual amount of the social security ceiling.

The ceiling is increased the unused deduction limit (or part of the limit) in the previous 3 years, from oldest to newest.

Example :

You didn't use up your entire deduction limit in 2022 and 2023.

Your 2024 contributions are deducted as a priority from your 2024 limit.

The amount that exceeds your 2024 cap is deducted from the remaining portion of your 2022 cap, and then from the remaining portion of your 2023 cap.

You are unemployed or retired without a professional income

The ceiling is €4,399.

The ceiling is increased the unused deduction limit (or part of the limit) in the previous 3 years.

For example, if you did not use your full deduction limit in 2023, you can use the remaining portion to increase your deduction limit in 2024.

The contributions paid are to be indicated in the part Deductible expenses (retirement savings) on your tax return.

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