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The various pillars of your pension

2 min

If you've just started a business, you're probably thinking about anything but your pension, and that's totally normal. However, protecting the wealth you're building is just as important. You can even benefit from that right now, thanks to attractive tax incentives.

As a self-employed individual, you're entitled to a state pension, just like employees. And there are many ways to supplement it if you want to maintain your standard of living when you retire. The Belgian pension system consists of four “pillars”, which we outline below.

Four pillars for peace of mind in retirement

Your state pension

The state pension – the first pillar – depends on your salary, the number of years you've worked, and your status (self-employed, white-collar employee or blue-collar employee).

The state pension for self-employed individuals is smaller than for employees. It's therefore advisable to build a pension pot through the other pillars if you want to maintain a comfortable standard of living.

Supplementary pension

The second pillar allows you to supplement to your state pension.

Self-employed individuals can build a supplementary pension pot through a PLCI personal pension plan. If you’re not running a company, you can also set up a CPTI pension plan. If you’re a company director, you can have an EIP company pension plan. Your company pays the premiums, gets a tax benefit, and builds up a pension for you.

Pension savings and long-term savings

Regardless of your status, you can build a supplementary pension pot through the third pillar, which comes with tax benefits.

With a pension savings insurance policy or a pension savings fund, the amount you can pay in is subject to an annual limit, which is index-linked and adjusted every year. With long-term savings, the amount depends on your net business revenue.

Individual savings

The fourth pillar includes all the additional savings you build up without government tax incentives. You're therefore free to choose how you invest or save.

You can do this through a savings account, insurance products, investment funds, or of course by buying a property.