Why is there such a difference between my gross salary and my net salary?

You’ve just received your salary, and when checking your payslip, you notice a significant portion of your salary has disappeared. Yep, that’s true! A large part of your salary is deducted for things like social security and professional tax withholding. In other words, taxes that we all have to pay in Belgium. But why such a difference?

Why such a difference between gross and net?

The main reason for this difference is that, every month, a portion of your salary is directly deducted to cover your taxes and social security contributions. These deductions are made at the source, meaning you won’t have to pay the full amount of your taxes all at once at the end of the year.

How do you know how much you’ll actually take home?

Want to know how much you’ll really keep from your gross salary? There are online tools that allow you to run a simulation and find out your net salary from your gross salary. You can try this calculator on websites like this one: https://www.jobat.be/fr/art/que-reste-t-il-de-mon-brut