An Individual Pension Commitment — EIP in French, IPT in Dutch — moves company cash into a director's private wealth at one of the lowest total tax costs available in Belgium. In 2026 the boundaries shift: the Wijninckx levy quadruples, the 80% rule now runs off a higher salary floor, and the Arizona government has announced a redesign of the second pillar.
EIP premiums remain deductible against Belgian corporate income tax in 2026 within the 80% rule (articles 59 and 195 of the Belgian Income Tax Code). The Wijninckx levy rises from 3% to 12.5% from contribution year 2026, but only bites above a pension objective of roughly €97,548 a year — most SME directors' plans sit well below it. Held to legal retirement age while remaining active, the capital is taxed at just 10%.
The mechanics are simple. Your company signs a pension insurance contract for your exclusive benefit, pays the premiums, and deducts them from its taxable profit. The capital compounds untaxed during the build-up phase and is paid to you personally at retirement at a reduced final rate. Three tax advantages stack — which is exactly why the legislator polices the limits, and why several of those limits move in 2026.
The 80% rule: the ceiling that governs everything
Premium deductibility hinges on the 80% rule: your projected total pension — statutory pension plus all second-pillar supplementary pensions — may not exceed 80% of your last normal gross annual remuneration (art. 59 of the Belgian Income Tax Code). Anything above the ceiling is disallowed as a deductible expense.
Your salary is therefore the decisive variable, and 2026 moves it. The minimum director remuneration giving access to the reduced corporate tax rate rose from €45,000 to €50,000 (indexed), with benefits in kind capped at 20% of the total. Directors who raised their salary to keep the reduced rate simultaneously enlarged their deductible EIP premium capacity.
A second condition is less known and more dangerous in an audit: the director must receive a regular monthly salary, charged to the results of the taxable period (art. 195, §1, second paragraph of the Code). A salary booked once at year-end, or credited to a current account without actual payment, puts the entire premium deduction at risk.
Without an effective monthly salary the tax authority strikes twice: the company loses the premium deduction, and the director still pays tax on the capital at payout. Payment regularity is not an administrative detail — it is the fiscal existence condition of your EIP.
Wijninckx at 12.5%: the brake on the largest plans
The Wijninckx levy is a special social-security contribution on the highest supplementary pension accruals. It stood at 3% of the annual growth in pension reserves above a threshold. The law of 11 December 2025, published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 30 December 2025, raised it to 12.5% from contribution year 2026 — with no phase-in.
The trigger threshold remains high, however: the levy only applies where the pension objective exceeds the maximum civil-service pension, roughly €97,548 per year. An SME director whose EIP targets a capital below that annuity level is simply not concerned. The measure aims at the very largest plans — and there, the marginal cost rises sharply.
Add the 4.4% insurance premium tax on every premium paid, itself deductible like the premium. The overall fiscal return of an EIP remains positive, but the gap between a plan calibrated under the thresholds and an oversized one has widened.
Backservice: catching up ten years with one premium
The EIP can retroactively fund years in which no supplementary pension was built. This backservice covers career years inside the company plus up to ten years worked before joining it — including years spent elsewhere. For a director who long prioritised reinvestment in the business over personal pension build-up, the catch-up premium is a substantial immediate deduction, always within the 80% limit.
A year of exceptional results is the natural moment: the backservice premium absorbs part of that year's taxable profit while shifting value to the director's private estate.
Payout: 10% if you hold until legal retirement age
Taxation of the capital depends on your age and activity status at payout. Since February 2025 the legal retirement age is 66; it rises to 67 in 2030.
| Situation at payout | Tax rate |
|---|---|
| At legal retirement age, effectively active until then | 10% |
| At legal retirement age, without uninterrupted activity | 16.5% |
| Early withdrawal (age 61-62) | 18% |
| Early withdrawal (age 60) | 20% |
In every case a 3.55% INAMI contribution and a solidarity contribution of 0 to 2% are withheld first. "Remaining effectively active" means uninterrupted affiliation with a social insurance fund and payment of full self-employed social contributions during the three years before legal retirement age — a condition you document, not presume.
The Arizona coalition agreement plans to harmonise the self-employed second-pillar regimes and reform the 80% rule. As of today the 80% rule remains fully applicable: the replacement legislation has not been adopted. Premiums paid under the current regime keep their tax treatment.
And beyond the EIP ceiling?
The EIP's strength is also its limit: the 80% rule structurally caps what your company can transfer through this channel. For a director whose surplus cash exceeds the deductible premium capacity, the question becomes what to do with the rest.
That is where the full wealth architecture comes back into play. The liquidation reserve offers a deferred, low-cost exit. Leasing artworks to the company creates a deductible corporate expense (art. 49 of the Belgian Income Tax Code) anchored to a tangible asset outside the scope of the new taxes on financial assets. EIP, liquidation reserve and real assets do not compete: they stack, each within its own limit.
The right calibration — which salary, which premium, which backservice, which vehicle for the surplus — depends on your situation. That is precisely the kind of trade-off we walk through in a first confidential conversation, alongside your existing advisers.
Frequently asked questions
What is an EIP and who qualifies?
A pension insurance contract taken out by the company for its self-employed director. Premiums are deductible if the 80% rule is respected (art. 59, Belgian Income Tax Code) and the director receives a regular monthly salary (art. 195 of the Code).
Does the 12.5% Wijninckx levy apply to every EIP?
No. It only targets accrual above a pension objective of roughly €97,548 a year, aligned with the maximum civil-service pension. Most SME directors' plans stay below it.
How is the capital taxed at payout?
10% at legal retirement age if you remained effectively active, after INAMI (3.55%) and the solidarity contribution (0 to 2%). Early withdrawal: 16.5% to 20% depending on age.