Foreign Accounts and Moroccan Property: What Belgium Actually Taxes

The account costs you nothing to declare. The apartment in Casablanca lifts the tax on your Belgian salary, even when it earns nothing.

By the Namup team, Updated July 2026

Two pieces of your life stayed in Morocco: a bank account, and often a home. Belgium treats them as if they had nothing to do with each other, and the gap between the two is where the money is.

The account is a pure formality. Declaring it is free and, on its own, triggers no tax at all: what the law wants is the existence of the account and the country it sits in, never the balance, and it wants that with no minimum amount and no exemption for an account that has been asleep for years¹. The one Belgian oddity is that there are two counters to visit instead of one, the tax authority and the National Bank.

The home is not a formality. Since 2021, a property you own abroad is given a Belgian cadastral income, an official notional rental value set by the Belgian administration, and that figure goes into your Belgian return even if the place stands empty and not one euro ever leaves Morocco². You declare it as exempt. Exempt is not the same as invisible.

The property that pays you nothing and still raises your rate

Here is the mechanism, in the order the return asks for it. The unindexed cadastral income goes in box III, A, 2, under code 1106. You then repeat the same amount in box III, B, 1, with the country, and that second entry is what claims the exemption with progressivity reserve³.

The name is opaque and the effect is simple. In the words of the tax administration, you owe no tax on the income from that property, but the income "comptera pour déterminer le taux d'imposition qui sera appliqué à vos autres revenus", it counts towards setting the rate applied to the rest of what you earn. Your Casablanca apartment sends you nothing. Your Belgian salary is nonetheless taxed a notch higher because the apartment exists. And no, the taxes you already paid in Morocco cannot be subtracted from the cadastral income: the administration's answer to that exact question is a flat "Non".

There is a condition on the exemption that is easy to miss. The treaty between Belgium and Morocco, signed in Brussels on 31 May 2006 and in force since 30 April 2009, gives Morocco the right to tax income from property situated there. Belgium then exempts that income, but only where it is taxable in Morocco and effectively taxed there⁴. Two conditions, not one. If nothing is taxed on the Moroccan side, the exemption is not automatic, and that is a conversation for a professional rather than a form.

Two obligations, and a four-month clock

The first obligation is the one people do not know exists: you have to ask for the cadastral income to be established. Anyone who acquires or disposes of a real right on a property abroad must declare it spontaneously to the General Administration of Patrimonial Documentation within four months. For property already held on 31 December 2020, the deadline was 31 December 2021. Someone who becomes a Belgian resident gets thirty days⁵.

You do it online through the tax portal, or on paper, sent to the service in Namur that handles foreign cadastral income. One declaration per property, or per group of properties forming a single unit. If the property has several owners who are Belgian taxpayers, each files separately for their own share. When the cadastral income is notified to you, a two-month window opens to contest it⁶.

The second obligation is the annual one, box III, every year, for as long as you hold the property.

Now the good news, and it is real. For a home let to a private individual who does not use it for their trade or profession, the taxable base is not the rent you collect: it is the cadastral income, indexed each year, increased by 40 percent⁷. Rent that runs well above that notional value does not change the figure Belgium puts into the calculation. The actual rent comes back into play only where the tenant is a business or uses the property for their work. Most family lettings in Morocco fall on the quiet side of that line.

One picture of what you own, in both countries. See my wealth →

The account: two counters, and not one euro of tax

On the return, the account goes in box XIII, A, in the box facing code 1075-89, with the holder's name and the country, one line per account. A life-insurance policy taken out abroad is a different animal: it belongs in box XIII, B, under code 1076-88, and it does not go to the National Bank at all⁸.

The second counter is the Central Contact Point held by the National Bank of Belgium. The communication is due at the latest when you file your return, unless you already made it in an earlier tax year. What you send is your national register number, your name and first official first name, and for each account the IBAN where one exists, the name of the institution, its BIC code and the country where the account was opened⁹.

Then comes the sentence that takes the weight off. The National Bank puts it plainly: the declaration to the Central Contact Point is made only once, while the existence of a foreign account has to be mentioned on the tax return every year. You register the account one time in your life, and after that it is a box to tick each spring. You can do it online with your electronic identity card or with the itsme app, or by post using the Bank's form. Emails are refused, so do not try that route¹⁰.

Two situations settle a lot of family questions. A joint account means each co-holder makes their own communication, one per person. And someone who is merely a mandate holder on an account, with a power of attorney over an elderly parent's account, for instance, does not have to declare that account to the Central Contact Point¹¹.

One last quirk, worth knowing because it cuts both ways. What matters is where the institution is established, not its nationality. An account opened in Belgium at the Belgian branch of a foreign institution is not a foreign account. An account opened at the foreign branch of a Belgian institution is one¹². If part of your household also has ties to France, the French equivalent runs on a different logic entirely, and it is set out in the guide to form 3916.

What forgetting costs, and what quietly changed in 2026

Take the return first. A declaration that is incomplete or inaccurate without any intention of evading tax carries an increase of 10 percent for a first offence, then 20, then 30. Where the intention to evade is established, the scale runs 50, 100, then 200 percent. Since a law of July 2025, the increase is waived for a first offence committed in good faith, and good faith is presumed to exist until the contrary is proved¹³. A separate administrative fine, ranging from 50 to 1,250 euros, sits alongside that scale¹⁴.

Then the question everyone actually asks: how far back can the administration go? The ordinary period is three years. Where the declaration is missing, filed late, or "complex", the tax can be assessed over four years, and seven where the offence was committed with fraudulent intent or with intent to cause harm. That four-year figure is recent and it matters, because a law of 18 December 2025, in force on 9 January 2026 and applicable from assessment year 2023, abolished the six-year and ten-year periods that a great deal of Belgian material online still quotes¹⁵. In the same text, a declaration counts as complex when it has to mention a legal arrangement (a construction juridique), among other cases. A plain foreign bank account does not make your declaration complex.

On the property side the scale is blunt and, unusually, published in figures. For a late or missing declaration of a real right on a property abroad: 1,000 euros where the cadastral income is below 745 euros, 2,000 euros where it falls between 745 and 2,500, and 3,000 euros at 2,500 or above. The fines apply per cadastral parcel concerned, so two plots mean two fines. And where the failure is due to circumstances outside your control, the official column reads "Néant", nothing due¹⁶.

The window is also narrowing on its own. Morocco committed voluntarily to begin the automatic exchange of financial account information in 2025 and has not exchanged yet, so the OECD's Global Forum now expects exchanges to start by 2028 at the latest¹⁷. What that changes for you, in practice, is covered in the note on automatic exchange with Morocco. The direction of travel is not in doubt, only its date.

Coming forward on your own is always received better than being found. That is the moment an accountant earns their fee, and the earlier you make that call, the cheaper the conversation.

The one line nobody bills you for

A property abroad is never paid for in a single stroke. There is the local tax in Morocco, the building manager, the maintenance, the person who goes to open the shutters, and the extra Belgian tax the progressivity reserve quietly pushes up. Add them together and you have a figure for the year. Divide by twelve and you have a budget line instead of a ruined month.

This is the one calculation the method runs, on a household in Brussels with an apartment in Casablanca (illustrative figures):

Look again at the fourth line. That €210 appears on no bank statement, nobody asks you for it this month, and you owe it all the same. Left invisible, it arrives whole on one month and knocks the month over. Written down, it behaves exactly like the rent, and the figure at the bottom becomes true.

The second effect is quieter and shows up in spring. When every account and every property already has its place in one picture of what you own, filling box XIII and box III stops being an excavation of old letters. The list is in front of you, with the country, the institution and the year the account was opened. On the Moroccan side, the type of account decides what you are able to move later, which is the subject of the convertible dirham account.

One month to try it, then you decide. Open Namup →

Frequently asked questions

I have a Moroccan account with a small balance that I barely touch. Does declaring it cost me tax?

No. The declaration reports the existence of the account and the country it was opened in, never the balance, and it triggers no tax by itself. There is no minimum amount and no exemption for a dormant account, not even for one open a few weeks in the year. The registration with the National Bank is made once and does not have to be repeated, while the mention on your tax return comes back every year.

The apartment in Casablanca is empty and brings in nothing. Is there still something to declare?

Yes, and this is the part that surprises people. A Belgian cadastral income is determined for property abroad whether or not it is rented, and the amount is reported every year in box III. It is exempt, but exempt with progressivity reserve, which means it counts towards the rate applied to your Belgian income. An empty apartment can therefore raise the tax on your salary without ever sending you a euro.

Is the rent I collect in Morocco what Belgium taxes?

Usually not. Where the home is let to a private individual who does not use it for their trade or profession, the Belgian base is the cadastral income, indexed each year and increased by 40 percent, not the rent you actually receive. The real rent only comes back into the calculation if your tenant is a business or uses the property for work.

I hold a power of attorney on my mother's account in Morocco. Do I have to report it?

Not to the Central Contact Point: the National Bank states that a person who is only a mandate holder on a foreign account does not declare it there. The tax return, for its part, asks about accounts held by you, your spouse and your children as holders. A genuinely joint account is a different case, because each co-holder then makes their own communication.

I have missed this for several years. How far back can the administration go?

The ordinary period is three years, extended to four where the declaration is missing, late or complex, and to seven where fraudulent intent is established. The old six-year and ten-year periods were abolished by a law of December 2025 that applies from assessment year 2023, so treat older articles with care. A first mistake made in good faith now escapes the tax increase, good faith being presumed until proved otherwise, and coming forward before an audit is the whole point of talking to an accountant now rather than later.

1. Article 307, § 1er/1, alinéa 1er, a), of the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 (CIR 92), inserted by article 94 of the loi-programme of 25 December 2017, Moniteur belge of 29 December 2017, numac 2017032136. Verbatim: the return must mention « de l'existence de comptes de toute nature dont le contribuable, son conjoint, ainsi que les enfants […] ont été titulaires, à un quelconque moment durant la période imposable, auprès d'un établissement de banque, de change, de crédit ou d'épargne établi à l'étranger […] et du ou des pays où ces comptes ont été ouverts » (the existence of accounts of any kind held at any moment during the taxable period with a bank, exchange, credit or savings institution established abroad, and the country or countries where they were opened). ejustice.just.fgov.be. No floor amount exists; SPF Finances, page "Comptes à l'étranger": « Vous devez déclarer ces comptes même s'ils n'ont été ouverts qu'une courte durée pendant l'année » (you must declare these accounts even if they were open only for a short time during the year), fin.belgium.be. Consulted July 2026. ↩
2. Article 471, § 1er, CIR 92, replaced by article 8 of the loi of 17 February 2021 amending the CIR 92 as regards immovable property situated abroad, Moniteur belge of 25 February 2021, numac 2021040566. Verbatim: « Un revenu cadastral est déterminé pour tous les biens immobiliers bâtis ou non bâtis […] pour autant que ces biens : 1° soient situés en Belgique ou ; 2° soient situés à l'étranger et ; a) qu'un habitant du Royaume […] soit titulaire d'un droit réel sur ces biens » (a cadastral income is determined for all built or unbuilt immovable property, provided it is situated in Belgium, or situated abroad and held by a resident of the Kingdom under a real right). The law takes effect on 1 January 2021 and its title 2 applies from assessment year 2022. ejustice.just.fgov.be. ↩
3. SPF Finances, "Biens immobiliers à l'étranger": the unindexed cadastral income is reported under code 1106 (box III, A, 2) and repeated in box III, B, 1 with the country to claim the exemption with progressivity reserve. Verbatim: « vous ne devez pas payer d'impôt sur les revenus provenant de ce bien immobilier même, mais […] ce revenu comptera pour déterminer le taux d'imposition qui sera appliqué à vos autres revenus »; on foreign taxes, the answer given is « Non. Vous ne pouvez pas déduire les impôts étrangers du revenu cadastral. » The same page notes that « L'exonération avec réserve de progressivité n'est valable que si les conditions de la convention préventive de la double imposition sont remplies (par exemple, la preuve de l'imposition à l'étranger) ». fin.belgium.be, consulted July 2026. Box references: SPF Finances, brochure "Explications" to the return, part 1, assessment year 2026 (2025 income), fin.belgium.be (PDF). ↩
4. Convention between Belgium and Morocco signed in Brussels on 31 May 2006, in force on 30 April 2009 (assent law of 30 March 2009, Moniteur belge of 6 May 2009, numac 2009015059), replacing the convention signed in Rabat on 4 May 1972 (article 29, § 3); its provisions apply from 1 January 2010 according to the summary note of the Moroccan Direction générale des impôts. Article 6, § 1er: « Les revenus qu'un résident d'un Etat contractant tire de biens immobiliers […] situés dans l'autre Etat contractant, sont imposables dans cet autre Etat. » Article 23, § 1er, a): « Lorsqu'un résident de la Belgique reçoit des revenus […] qui sont imposables au Maroc conformément aux dispositions de la présente Convention et qui y sont imposés, la Belgique exempte de l'impôt ces revenus, mais elle peut, pour calculer le montant de ses impôts sur le reste du revenu de ce résident, appliquer le même taux que si les revenus en question n'avaient pas été exemptés » (where the income is taxable in Morocco and is taxed there, Belgium exempts it but may keep the same rate for the rest of the income). Assent law, ejustice.just.fgov.be; Moroccan DGI summary note (PDF). ↩
5. Article 473, § 2, CIR 92 (same loi of 17 February 2021): whoever acquires or disposes of a real right on immovable property situated abroad « est tenu de le déclarer spontanément à l'Administration générale de la Documentation patrimoniale dans les 4 mois de l'acquisition ou de l'aliénation »; property held on 31 December 2020 had to be declared « au plus tard le 31 décembre 2021 »; a person who becomes a Belgian resident has thirty days. Same source as note 2. ↩
6. SPF Finances, "Revenu cadastral d'un bien immobilier à l'étranger": declaration online through MyMinfin or on paper to « SPF Finances - AGDP - Service RC étranger, Avenue Prince de Liège 133 boite 459, 5100 Namur »; one declaration per property or per group of properties forming a single unit; each co-owner who is a Belgian taxpayer files a separate declaration for their share; the notification of the cadastral income opens a two-month period to contest it. fin.belgium.be, consulted July 2026. ↩
7. Article 7, § 1er, 2°, a), CIR 92, as amended by article 2 of the loi of 17 February 2021: for property let « à une personne physique qui ne les affecte ni totalement ni partiellement à l'exercice de son activité professionnelle », the taxable income is « le revenu cadastral majoré de 40 p.c. lorsqu'il s'agit d'autres biens » (the cadastral income increased by 40 percent). Same source as note 2. Reservation: the cadastral income is indexed every year and the indexation coefficient changes annually, so no coefficient is quoted here, since any figure given would be out of date within a year. ↩
8. SPF Finances, brochure "Explications" to the return, part 1, assessment year 2026 (2025 income), box XIII: the foreign account is reported in rubric A, in the box facing code 1075-89, with the holder's surname, first name and the country; a life-insurance policy taken out abroad is reported in rubric B, code 1076-88. That policy is not communicated to the Central Contact Point, per the SPF Finances page "Comptes à l'étranger". Brochure (PDF); fin.belgium.be. ↩
9. Article 307, § 1er/1, alinéa 2, CIR 92 (loi-programme of 25 December 2017): the communication is due « au plus tard en même temps que l'introduction de la déclaration […] sauf si cette communication a déjà été effectuée dans un exercice d'imposition précédent ». The data required is listed in article 2, § 1er, of the arrêté royal of 23 June 2019, Moniteur belge of 8 July 2019, numac 2019013550, in force on 1 January 2020: national register number, surname and first official first name, and for each account « le numéro de ce compte, identifié au moyen de son numéro IBAN lorsque ce dernier existe, la dénomination de l'établissement […], le code BIC […] et le pays où ce compte a été ouvert ». ejustice.just.fgov.be. ↩
10. National Bank of Belgium, page "Déclarer des comptes étrangers": « La déclaration au PCC ne se fait qu'une seule fois alors que l'existence d'un compte étranger doit être mentionnée chaque année sur la déclaration fiscale. » nbb.be. Filing channels, per SPF Finances, "Comptes à l'étranger": online with the electronic identity card or itsme, or by post using the National Bank's form, and « Les envois par e-mail seront refusés. » fin.belgium.be. Consulted July 2026. ↩
11. Joint accounts: arrêté royal of 23 June 2019, article 2, § 2, « chaque co-titulaire est tenu de communiquer les informations » (each co-holder must communicate the information), same source as note 9. Mandate holders: National Bank of Belgium, same page as note 10, « une personne qui ne serait que mandataire d'un compte étranger ne doit pas déclarer ce compte au PCC » (a person who is merely a mandate holder on a foreign account does not have to declare that account to the Central Contact Point). ↩
12. Rapport au Roi accompanying the arrêté royal of 23 June 2019: « un compte ouvert en Belgique auprès de la succursale belge d'un établissement […] de droit étranger […] n'est donc pas un compte étranger […]. A l'inverse, un compte ouvert auprès d'une succursale à l'étranger d'un établissement […] de droit belge est bien un compte étranger » (an account opened in Belgium at the Belgian branch of a foreign-law institution is not a foreign account; conversely an account opened at a foreign branch of a Belgian-law institution is). Same source as note 9. ↩
13. Articles 225 and 226 of the arrêté royal of 27 August 1993 implementing the CIR 92: an incomplete or inaccurate declaration « sans intention d'éluder l'impôt » carries 10 percent for a first offence, then 20, then 30; « avec intention d'éluder l'impôt », 50, 100, then 200 percent. ejustice.just.fgov.be. Reservation: the official consolidated page carries a notice that its updating has been suspended since 2003, so the scale is reproduced as it stands there and is worth confirming with a professional. The waiver comes from the loi-programme of 18 July 2025, Moniteur belge of 29 July 2025, numac 2025005578, chapter "Suppression de l'accroissement d'impôts en cas de bonne foi", replacing the third paragraph of article 444 CIR 92: « Il est renoncé à l'accroissement d'impôt pour la première infraction commise de bonne foi. La bonne foi est, jusqu'à preuve du contraire, présumée exister dans le chef du contribuable qui a commis une première infraction, sauf en cas d'application de l'article 351. » Applicable to taxes enrolled from publication of the law. ejustice.just.fgov.be. ↩
14. Article 445, alinéa 1er, CIR 92. The euro range comes from the conversion table of the arrêté royal of 20 July 2000 on the introduction of the euro, Moniteur belge of 30 August 2000, numac 2000003467, which converts the former range of 2,000 to 50,000 francs into 50 to 1,250 euros. ejustice.just.fgov.be. Reservation: the consolidated, up-to-date text of the article is not freely consultable, so the range is given from that official conversion table rather than from a certified version of the article itself. ↩
15. Article 354 CIR 92 as rewritten by the loi of 18 December 2025 containing various provisions, Moniteur belge of 30 December 2025, numac 2025009647, in force on 9 January 2026 and applicable from assessment year 2023. Verbatim: « En cas d'absence de déclaration, de remise tardive de celle-ci ou de déclaration complexe, l'impôt ou le supplément d'impôt peut […] être établi pendant quatre ans »; the paragraphs that created the six-year and ten-year periods are repealed; « l'impôt ou le supplément d'impôt peut être établi pendant sept ans […] en cas d'infraction […] commise dans une intention frauduleuse ou à dessein de nuire ». The ordinary period is three years. On complexity, the same article covers the case where, under article 307, § 1er/1 or § 1er/3, « la déclaration doit faire mention de l'existence d'une construction juridique », so a foreign bank account on its own does not make a declaration complex. ejustice.just.fgov.be. ↩
16. Article 445, § 5, CIR 92, inserted by article 7 of the loi of 17 February 2021 (administrative fine « de 250 euros à 3 000 euros » for breach of the declaration obligations of article 473), with the scale fixed by the arrêté royal of 20 September 2023, Moniteur belge of 12 October 2023, numac 2023045447, in force on 22 October 2023. Applicable line, for a late or absent declaration of a real right on immovable property situated abroad: « RC < 745 EUR : 1000 EUR ; RC entre 745 EUR et moins de 2500 EUR : 2000 EUR ; RC > ou = 2500 EUR : 3000 EUR »; « les amendes sont appliquées par parcelle cadastrale concernée »; and where the breach is « due à des circonstances indépendantes de la volonté du contribuable : Néant ». ejustice.just.fgov.be. ↩
17. OECD, Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, "Status of commitments for the automatic exchange of financial account information", update of 22 May 2026: "Morocco voluntarily committed to commence exchanges in 2025 but has not yet exchanged […] Morocco is therefore expected to commence exchanges by 2028 at the latest." oecd.org (PDF). ↩