Staff
Group insurance
Group insurance is a pension commitment for your staff. Today it is one of the strongest arguments for attracting and keeping good people.
- Who we help
- Every employer with staff on the payroll.
- The tax benefit
- The premium is 100% deductible for the company.
What is group insurance?
As an employer, you can make a pension commitment for the benefit of your employees, or of a specific category of employees. Today, that promise is very often fulfilled by taking out group insurance:
- An annual premium is paid to an insurance company
- For the benefit of the employee or their family members
- Who thereby enjoy multiple benefits, hence the name "employee benefits"
Who is it for?
Every employer with salaried staff on the payroll. Having a company is not a requirement.
The legal details
The term "group insurance" is used to refer to the insured benefits that an employer offers their employee, which is why we also speak of "employee benefits". But that group insurance is merely the instrument through which you, as an employer, fulfil your promise to your staff.
What about an employee contribution?
An employee contribution to the group insurance is possible. That premium is withheld by the employer from the employee's net salary. If an employee contribution is introduced, it is the same for all employees. For example, this personal contribution can amount to 2% of the gross annual salary. The personal contribution is used solely for pension building.
- The taxation of the contribution is particularly favourable: the employer often bears the 4.4% tax, and this premium also entitles the employee to a 30% tax benefit in personal income tax
- It can also be combined with other tax benefits in personal income tax, such as pension saving
- The final taxation on the capital built up with employee contributions may also be lower than on capital built up with employer contributions
Did you know?
You may need to take action before 2025
Due to the harmonisation of the status of blue collar and white collar workers, a Life Experts specialist is needed to bring your group insurance into line with the law and keep it that way.
Efficient management matters
Life Experts works only with group insurers that provide the necessary online tools, so that you as the employer and we as the broker can manage your file together.
A cafeteria plan adds extra flexibility
Let your employees make individual choices about the risk covers they want to invest the premiums in. As the employer, you keep paying the same premium, and yet they can use it according to their family situation.
There is an immediate benefit
Your employee can already take an advance before retirement for the construction, renovation, or purchase of a home.
Plans can be stacked
Several categories can be insured, with plans stacked on top of one another. As a large company, you can, for example, give "team leaders" an additional benefit on top of the existing pension plan for "all employees". That additional benefit can even be a bonus plan.
We take care of the presentation
Life Experts presents your group insurance to your staff members, of course in Dutch, French, or English. Periodic communication of this employee benefit is extremely important. The basic principles are often repeated for newcomers, and common questions are answered.
A minimum return guarantee applies for your employees
A statutory minimum return guarantee on the group insurance applies for your employees.
Taxation
The premium for group insurance is paid by the employer and is 100% deductible in corporation tax, provided the 80% rule is not violated.
On payment
A premium tax of 4.4% and 8.86% employer RSZ (national social security), so 13.26% total charges, is owed on every premium payment. This is significantly less than the 34% employer RSZ paid on salary.
On payout
On payout, a 3.55% RIZIV (the national health and disability insurance institute) contribution and a 0 to 2% solidarity contribution are withheld from the capital. After that, the guaranteed capital (the capital paid in plus the guaranteed return) is taxed between 10% and 20%, depending on the age at which one stops working, plus municipal tax. This too is significantly less than the sum of employee RSZ (13.07%) and personal income tax (usually 50%, because variable pay is taxed at the marginal rate).
Does this fit your situation?
You will get an honest answer, even if that answer is "no".
Disclaimer: Life Experts provides insurance solutions for self-employed directors, liberal professions, SMEs and large companies. You will find the basic information for each type of solution on this website. With the product descriptions and the product overview on this website, we do not aim to follow a tax or legal classification, but a pragmatic and practical one. A turnover insurance, for instance, is fiscally a company-director insurance. And a death cover or a disability insurance can be taken out within the tax regimes of IPT, VAPZ, POZ, long-term saving, pension saving, and so on.