HLN Tax Marathon
The HLN Tax Marathon is in full swing. Until 8 p.m., tax advisors will give their very best tips here and more than 1,400 readers will share their tax questions and answers with you. We bring you all the highlights in our live blog.
Glenn Haex, Filip Vranckx, Kenneth Servaes, Jasmine Heyvaert, Ariane De Borger
liveblog
We are halfway through the HLN Tax Marathon!
What if you only see an error after you have submitted your tax return?
Francis Adyns, spokesperson for FPS Finance explains.
“Pay 2,400 euros less”: Astrid (35) and Kenneth (35) forgot to submit their home loan
“Normally we had to pay 3,200 euros, but thanks to the tax advisor’s advice, that is only 800 euros,” say Astrid and Kenneth from Buggenhout. The reason? Both our housing loan and the daycare for the children were not automatically included in the tax return.”
VTM News went live on the HLN Tax Marathon at 1 p.m. View the status here:
The 500th visitor has arrived!
Bad luck for Wim (49) and Sandy (47): “We are paying extra for the first time in 20 years due to two missing deductions”
“Last year we got 5,000 euros back, but now we have to pay for the first time in twenty years,” say Sandy (47) & Wim (49) from Lier. “It’s because we can no longer include service vouchers and the interest deduction for our second home in our tax return. So we are less enthusiastic than last year.”
Three points of attention for those who do long-term savings (just like Ine)
• “If you also have a housing bonus for your own home, the capital repayments are first charged to the housing bonus basket. What remains can only then go to the long-term savings basket,” says Jorn Peyskens from Certifisc.
• “What is eligible? Only capital repayments on a mortgage loan (for a home other than your own home, entered into no later than December 31, 2023) and premiums on an individual mixed life insurance policy.”
• “Pension savings is not the same as long-term savings: these are two separate systems, each with their own basket and rules.”
“I didn’t know where to declare long-term savings”: Ine (65) from Merksem has to pay 900 euros less
“The day can’t go wrong for me anymore,” says Ine Van Dommele (65) from Merksem. “Since our home loan had expired last year, we opted for a life plan. That is a form of long-term savings, which you can also enter in your tax return. But I didn’t know where exactly to fill it in. The advisor helped me with this, so I now have to pay 900 euros less.” The box she had to fill in is 2353.
Another high amount! Cédric will receive approximately 7,000 euros back
“Everything has to do with my company, which I stopped in 2022,” says Cédric Goossens from Berlaar. “I subsequently paid social contributions, but they were never entered on my tax return. As a result, I will receive a total of 7,000 euros back. So I now have to submit an objection.”
Would you also like to come along during the HLN Tax Marathon? Register here
What is withholding tax? Tax expert Michel Maus explains
This morning, HLN readers Els and Marleen were able to save 15,000 euros on their tax return. They had paid too much withholding tax. Our expert explains what exactly that is.
“I didn’t know this, and it had been going on for several years”: Wim gets no less than 6,000 euros back
“I didn’t know that I could also submit a loan for a second home in my tax return,” says Wim Gijsels (57) from Borgerhout. “Thanks to the advice of our tax advisor, we can now reclaim that amount for the past five years. In total, this amounts to approximately 6,000 euros.”
Kurt forgot about the housing bonus since 2022: “The mistake was corrected and we saved 8,000 euros”
Kurt Verhaegen (59) from Ekeren and his wife Veronique Aken (52) discovered here that they have not declared their mortgage loan for four years and thus missed out on the housing bonus. “We are now withdrawing 2,000 euros. In total it is about 8,000 euros. We can put that to good use for our renovations.”
Tax advisor Nico Van Bosstraeten of Fiscaal Ideaal therefore recommends always checking your simplified tax return proposal carefully. “For some people, such information is filled in automatically, for others it is not. We don’t know why. Fortunately, we can still correct this error through an objection.”
Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA): “No more tax increases for the first mistake”
“If you made a mistake in the past, you were punished immediately a 10 percent tax increase,” says fDutch Minister of Finance and Pensions (N-VA), who is visiting the HLN Tax Marathon. “We have now abolished that. We assume that citizens act in good faith.”
Anita gets more than 4,000 euros back (and it’s a mistake we’ve seen before)
“We will be reimbursed more than 4,000 euros. My employer went bankrupt in 2024. Last year I received a severance payment and apparently a lot is being withheld from it. We are now getting a large amount back. I was not aware of it, but it is a nice surprise.”
“A severance payment in Belgium is in principle taxed at the average tax rate on your income from a previous ‘normal’ working year. This prevents you from suddenly ending up in the highest tax brackets due to the payment,” says Jorn Peyskens from Certifisc.
“I walk out with a smile”: Kimberly has to pay 2,800 euros less
“I normally had to pay 560 euros to the FPS Finance. But my alimony and extraordinary costs were not included in the proposal for a simplified declaration. As a result, I now get 2,800 euros back. That is a big difference from last year. Then I had to pay 1,500 euros.”