Income tax - How to change your withholding tax rate?

Verified 01 January 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Your withholding tax rate no longer corresponds to your situation? You can ask to lower it or increase it. You can also choose a lower rate than your Civil partnership or partner, or refuse to pass on your personalized rate to your employer. We'll tell you what you need to know.

You have the option of using a different rate depending on your situation.

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You want to lower your rate

If your revenues have gone downHowever, you can ask tax authorities to reduce your withholding tax rate to avoid paying too much income tax.

You can ask for the change in the event of a deviation of more than 5% between:

  • Levy at the rate modulated downwards
  • Picking at your current rate

Example :

The amount of your annual levy is €2,000.

Due to your declining revenues, you estimate your annual levy at €1,850.

The difference is 7.5% . You can therefore ask for a reduction in your withholding tax rate.

You can request the change directly in your Special Space online:

Taxes: access your Special Space

You must specify your net taxable income and expenses, as you estimate them for the current year.

To calculate your net tax income from your gross income, you can use the tax calculator:

Simulator for calculating net tax income from gross income

The new rate applies no later than 3e month after your request.

Warning  

The reduced rate will be applied until 31 december. You will need to make a new change request at the end of the year if your revenues remain reduced after 1er January.

If you want to obtain personalized information, you can contact the tax information service:

Who shall I contact

  • Tax Information Service

    By telephone:

    0809 401 401

    Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 7 pm, excluding public holidays.

    Free service + call price

You want to increase your rate

If your revenues have gone upHowever, you can ask the tax authorities to increase your withholding tax rate to avoid having to pay too high a tax supplement at the end of the year.

You can request the change directly in your Special Space online:

Taxes: access your Special Space

You must specify your net taxable income and expenses, as you estimate them for the current year.

To calculate your net tax income from your gross income, you can use the tax calculator:

Simulator for calculating net tax income from gross income

The new rate applies no later than 3e month after your request.

Warning  

The higher rate will be applied until 31 december. You will need to make a new change request at the end of the year if your revenues remain higher after 1er January.

If you want to obtain personalized information, you can contact the tax information service:

Who shall I contact

  • Tax Information Service

    By telephone:

    0809 401 401

    Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 7 pm, excluding public holidays.

    Free service + call price

You want a lower rate than your Civil partnership or partner

If you are married or past, you make a joint declaration and you have the same take-down rate.

However, you can opt for an individualized levy rate.

Each member of the couple thus obtains one rate according to his own income.

FYI  

From 1er september 2025, each member of a married or former couple (subject to common taxation) will benefit automatically of a individualized rate, according to his income. It will be possible to opt for the tax shelter, based on the couple's income.

You can request the change directly in your Special Space online:

Taxes: access your Special Space

The new rate applies no later than 3e month after your request.

If you want to obtain personalized information, you can contact the tax information service:

Who shall I contact

  • Tax Information Service

    By telephone:

    0809 401 401

    Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 7 pm, excluding public holidays.

    Free service + call price

You don't want your employer to know your personalized rate

If you do not want to pass on your personalized rate to your employer, the employer will apply a neutral rate (also called default rate).

Warning  

In most cases, the neutral rate will be higher than your custom rate.

If the neutral rate is lower than your personalized rate, you will have to pay monthly the difference between the levy made and the one that would have been made with the personalized rate.

You can request the change directly in your Special Space online.

Taxes: access your Special Space

The new rate applies no later than 3e month after your request.

If you want to get personalized information, you can contact this service:

Who shall I contact

  • Tax Information Service

    By telephone:

    0809 401 401

    Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 7 pm, excluding public holidays.

    Free service + call price

Who can help me?

Find who can answer your questions in your region

  • For general information

    Tax Information Service

    By telephone:

    0809 401 401

    Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 7 pm, excluding public holidays.

    Free service + call price

  • To contact the local service managing your folder

    Department in charge of taxes (treasury, tax department...)