Retire in Turkey from Belgium (2026)

Belgium and Turkey have had a bilateral social security agreement since 1968, replaced by a modernised treaty that has been in force since 1 September 2018. It totalises contribution periods in both countries and is the specific legal basis that lets your Belgian state pension (rustpensioen / pension de retraite) be paid to you as a resident of Turkey — outside the EU/EEA, export of a Belgian pension is otherwise generally limited to nationals of a country with exactly this kind of agreement. Belgium and Turkey also have a double taxation treaty, signed in 1987, in force since 1991 and amended by a protocol in 2013, which covers pension income. We could not confirm from public sources exactly how that treaty allocates taxing rights over a private-sector state pension in your situation, or whether any Belgian withholding applies once you are Turkish tax resident — confirm both the payment and the tax treatment directly with the Federale Pensioendienst / Service fédéral des Pensions (SFP/FPD) and the international relations department of FPS Finance (SPF Finances) before you rely on a specific net figure.

Occupational pension capital or annuities (group insurance / "groepsverzekering" or "assurance groupe") can still generally be paid to you once you live abroad, and your pension institution cannot refuse or reduce payment purely because you moved. However, retirees resident in the EU/EEA or Switzerland benefit from paying only a reduced "solidarity contribution" instead of full tax and social contributions on this pension — Turkey sits outside that zone, so this concession most likely does not extend to you, but the exact combination of Belgian withholding tax, INAMI/RIZIV-related contributions, and the relevant article of the Belgium-Turkey tax treaty needs confirming directly with your pension institution and FPS Finance, since we could not verify a single applicable rate from public sources.

Belgian individual pension savings are normally taxed through an "anticipative" levy that your bank or insurer applies automatically around age 60, largely independent of where you happen to be living at that point, with withdrawal before that milestone triggering a much higher penalty rate instead. Because this is generally a domestic Belgian withholding event rather than something negotiated case-by-case under the tax treaty, moving to Turkey before or after it does not necessarily change what gets withheld — but confirm your specific product's timeline, any cross-border wrinkle, and current rates with your own bank or insurer, since terms differ by provider and can change.