Group insurance: the pillar you never see going by
The first pillar is the state pension. The third is the pension savings you pick yourself. Between the two sits one your employer funds without you deciding anything — and it is often the biggest. What it is really worth does not only depend on what went into it: it depends on the age at which you take it, which moves the levy from 10% to 20%. Here is the full calculation.
The second pillar is the supplementary pension built up through your job. For an employee it takes the form of group insurance or a pension fund, funded mainly by the employer and sometimes topped up by deductions on your payslip.
It is the least understood pillar, for a simple reason: you signed nothing, chose nothing, and never see it go by anywhere. Yet for many employees it is worth more than their pension savings.
What your employer pays in, and what it costs them
Employer contributions are not salary: they escape ordinary social security contributions. They do carry two specific levies, though.
⚠️ The Wijninckx contribution quadruples in 2026. It hits high supplementary pensions: the employer's share in the increase of the acquired reserves, when the state pension plus the reserves goes above a “pension objective”. It was 3% from 2019 to 2025. It rises to 12.50% from contribution year 2026. The reference amount used to work out the objective was €95,636.10 in 2025; the 2026 figure has not been published yet.
The 80% rule: what it really limits
It is the most quoted and the most misunderstood rule. It does not limit what you can build up: it limits the tax deductibility of the premiums for the employer.
The principle: the premiums cannot result in the state pension and the supplementary pension together exceeding 80% of your last normal gross pay, expressed as an annual annuity at the time of retirement.
It takes account of every second-pillar plan you belong to, as an employee and as a self-employed person. It does not take account of pension savings or long-term savings, which belong to the third pillar. And it does not apply to the calculation of the PLCI contribution ceiling.
Tax when you take it: the age decides everything
This is where it is all decided. The capital is not taxed as one block: employer payments and your own payments follow two separate regimes.
| Age when you take it | Capital from your payments | Capital from employer payments |
|---|---|---|
| 60 | 10% after 1/01/1993 16.5% before | 20% if taken before retirement 16.5% at retirement |
| 61 | 18% if taken before retirement 16.5% at retirement | |
| 62 to 65 | 16.5% in every case, unless a full career | |
| Full career of 45 years and active the last 3 years | 10% |
On employer capital of €100,000, taking it at 60 before retirement costs €20,000 in tax. Waiting for a full career of 45 years, and staying effectively active for the last three, brings it down to €10,000. The same capital, half the tax, purely a question of timing.
Two details matter. The rates above do not include municipal surcharges: the withholding tax actually deducted at source is 16.66% instead of 16.5% and 10.09% instead of 10%. And the basis for the calculation is the capital less social security contributions, profit sharing excluded — that part is not taxed.
The statutory retirement age has been 66 since 2025, and moves to 67 in 2030. Beyond 66, the 10% rate assumes payment no earlier than the statutory age and effective activity in the last three years.
The capital is first taxed under the scale above. Then a withholding tax of 30% is due each year on an amount equal to 3% of the net capital received. On net capital of €10,000, that comes to €90 a year.
The social levies, which come on top
| Levy | Rate | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| INAMI contribution | 3.55% | Total gross amount, profit sharing included |
| Solidarity contribution | 0 to 2% | Same — 2% for a single capital sum |
The solidarity contribution is refunded if the state pension plus the supplementary pension, notionally converted into an annuity, do not exceed €3,225.74 a month for a single person, or €3,729.34 with dependants.
⚠️ A third levy arrives in 2027. For payments made after 1 July 2027, an additional solidarity contribution of 2% will be deducted from the part of supplementary pensions above €150,000.
The guaranteed return, and who guarantees it
The law requires you to receive at least the contributions paid in, capitalised at a rate set by law. The FSMA calculates and publishes that rate every year, taking account of interest rates on ten-year government bonds.
The law places this obligation on the organiser — the employer or the sector organiser — and not on the pension institution. If actual returns fall short, it is the employer who has to fill the gap. For defined-benefit plans, the statutory guarantee covers only the personal contributions.
Changing employer: the moment you lose guarantees
When you leave your job — resignation, dismissal, early retirement — the pension institution sends you an exit statement setting out your rights and the options open to you. There are four.
⚠️ Transferring loses you two protections. The acquired benefit on your exit statement is no longer guaranteed. And you lose the statutory minimum return: the pension you end up with will depend on what the new contract says and on the returns obtained, with no legal minimum. Any returns guaranteed by the original institution no longer apply.
The FSMA recommends comparing the acquired benefit on the exit statement with the amounts the host structure would provide at retirement — and asking for them explicitly if they are not on the documents.
Where to check what you have
mypension.be brings together the first and second pillars, for employees and the self-employed alike. The third pillar is not there: your pension savings stay with your provider.
Second-pillar data comes from DB2P, the database run by Sigedis. It is updated at the start of September: pension institutions have until 31 August to send in the position of your rights as at 1 January. Looking in June means reading last year's figures. The amounts shown are gross.
The day the capital is paid out, it must be declared in box V of your personal income tax return, even if withholding tax has already been deducted at source. Municipal surcharges are set according to the municipality where you live on 1 January of the assessment year, that is the 1 January following the year you receive it: taking the money in October 2026 makes your municipal taxes depend on where you live on 1 January 2027.