Self-employed pension: how much should you save each month?

The starting point: what the statutory pension actually pays

The average statutory pension actually paid to self-employed people in Belgium is €1,243 a month. That is the figure to use as the basis for your calculation, not the theoretical maximum of €2,288.86, which assumes 45 years of contributions at the ceiling.

Three amounts frame the reality. The guaranteed minimum pension stands at €1,844.93 for a single person after a career of at least 30 years out of 45. The average is lower, at €1,243, pulled down by incomplete careers. The indicative maximum reaches €2,288.86 for a single person.

One structural detail explains why paying higher contributions does not solve the problem: above €80,627.22 of annual professional income, no further pension rights build up. Every euro earned above that ceiling adds nothing to the statutory pension. That is precisely the space the second pillar is designed to fill.

Putting a figure on the gap, in three numbers

The gap to close is the difference between the monthly income you are aiming for in retirement and the statutory pension you will receive. It is then converted into capital to build up, by multiplying the annual shortfall by a prudent conversion coefficient of 10, which reflects life expectancy after 65.

Take a self-employed person aiming for €2,500 a month. Their expected statutory pension is around €1,243. The gap is therefore €1,257 a month, or €15,084 a year. The capital needed comes to around €151,000.

This reasoning is only as good as its assumptions, and it makes two strong ones: it ignores inflation and it assumes a statutory pension in line with the average. It does, however, have one decisive merit: it gives you an order of magnitude in a minute, whereas having no figure at all tends to lead to doing nothing.

Turning the capital into a monthly effort: the time horizon is everything

Once you know the target capital, the monthly effort depends on one dominant variable: the number of years between you and the statutory retirement age, currently set at 66 and rising to 67 for people born in 1964 or later.

For a target capital of €151,000, excluding returns, the gross effort required breaks down as follows. The table illustrates one simple, stubborn fact: starting at 35 costs three times less per month than starting at 50.

These amounts are gross, before the tax effect. And the deduction changes the equation fundamentally: a PLCI/VAPZ premium is 100% deductible as a business expense, which means that a payment of €100 may cost you only €50 to €60 in real cash, depending on your marginal tax rate. The full calculation is set out in the next section.

In what order should you fill the different schemes?

The order is not a matter of preference: it follows from the tax return of each scheme. You fill the one that yields the most per euro paid in first, then work your way down.

The [PLCI/VAPZ](/fr/pension/plci) always comes first. It is 100% deductible as a business expense, so it reduces both your tax and your NISSE social security contributions, a double effect no other scheme offers. It is capped at €4,086.34 a year in the ordinary version (8.17% of reference income) and €4,701.54 in the social version (9.4%). It also falls outside the 80% rule, so it can be freely combined with everything else.

Next, the [IPC](/fr/pension/eip) if you work through a company. The company pays the premium and deducts it from its corporate income tax base; the limit is the 80% rule, which caps statutory plus supplementary pension at 80% of the last normal annual remuneration. The capital is taxed at 10% on payout at the statutory retirement age if the activity has been continued.

Or the [POZ/CPTI](/fr/pension/cpti) if you work in your own name, without a company. It gives a federal tax reduction of 30% of the premium, less advantageous than a deduction for a high earner, but it opens up the second pillar to those without a company. The 80% rule applies to it.

• 1. PLCI/VAPZ, up to €4,086.34 (or €4,701.54 for the social version): 100% deduction, outside the 80% rule.
• 2. IPC in a company, within the limit of the 80% rule: premium deductible from corporate income tax, payout taxed at 10%.
• 3. POZ/CPTI as a self-employed individual: tax reduction of 30%, subject to the 80% rule.
• 4. Individual pension savings and unrestricted savings, once the first three are maxed out.

The three most expensive mistakes

The first is waiting. No tax arrangement can make up for ten lost years: the difference between starting at 35 and at 50 exceeds anything that choosing between contracts can achieve.

The second is paying in only whatever is left at the end of the year. The PLCI/VAPZ has an annual ceiling that cannot be carried forward: an under-used year is lost for good, and all the more so because it was the most tax-efficient one.

The third is thinking in terms of gross capital without looking at the payout. PLCI/VAPZ capital is not taxed at 10% like an IPC: it is converted into a notional annuity of 4 to 5% of the net capital, taxed at your marginal rate for 10 years. Two identical amounts of capital can therefore produce very different net incomes.

Further reading

The pages on this site that explore each of the points covered here in more depth.

• Minimum pension for the self-employed: the conditionsWhat the statutory pension floor really guarantees, and under what conditions.
• Buying back study years for your pensionMaking up for a short career by buying back your study years.
• NISSE statutory pension: the detailed calculationHow the amount builds up, year by year, and what caps it.
• PLCI/VAPZ: ceilings, taxation and payoutThe first scheme to max out, and why it falls outside the 80% rule.
• PLCI/VAPZ vs IPC comparisonPut figures on both schemes side by side for your situation.
• The 80% ruleThe ceiling that governs the IPC and the POZ/CPTI, and how it is calculated.
• The 2027 pension reformWhat the penalty (malus) changes to the gap you need to close.
• Working while drawing your self-employed pensionThe other way to top up the statutory pension: the rules on combining income.

Frequently asked questions