Search Q&A
Residence and taxes
Mainly at J,
I have been a freelancer from mid xay through 2011 to present. I'll stop my freelance status this month and search for a permananent position again. Question is that I am American and Husband is Belgian and we own a home here. Problem is that I see some great positions in the US. If I go to work in the US and get paid there etc - what is my obligation to Belgium? For instance if a de-register and move there, but still own and come visit here? Or if I don't de-register then do I need to pay taxes still on the world wide income? How long do you have to be out of Belgium to not be considered for tax purposes for that year? I understand I may get a lot of cooky answers, but if some wise souls can help or point me in the right direction for professional info i'd appreciate it.
IIRC, you don't "stop" being a freelancer unless another status takes over. So you'd need to move out of Belgium, or get a job that comes with a different status. Given that there's a lot of different ways of "freelancing", I'd suggest you seek a 2nd opinion from somewhere like ActIris.
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Move to the US, and you move out of Belgium. It should be very straightforward of you have a permanent job offer. Your tax residency will move with you. You should qualify for "plit year" treatment, which means your tax year in Belgium stops one day and starts up again in the US on the next.
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There are no restrictions on you owning property in Belgium if you don't live there. Obviously, you'll still have the property taxes to pay, and you may have a non-resident tax on the property if it is not used as a primary residence.
If you rent it out and have income from the property, I don't know where this would be taxed.
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Ask your commune for help when you move - they should be able to help you fill in a tax form there and then, and they should also be able to advise if you'll have any continuing tax liabilities in Belgium.
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Do make sure you cover your own particular circumstances though - IMHO, there's always too much detail to cover in a forum like this, and you can't rely on anyone other than yourself to get it all right.
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Your Belgian tax office should help from this side at least.
