Do EU officials pay tax?

Do EU officials pay tax?

EU officials’ salaries are not subject to national taxes of EU member states. This is according to Protocol 7 on the privileges and immunities of the European Union, which is an annex to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Officials and other servants of the Union shall be liable to a tax for the benefit of the Union on salaries, wages and emoluments paid to them by the Union, in accordance with the conditions and procedure laid down by the European Parliament and the Council, acting by means of regulations in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and after consultation of the institutions concerned. They shall be exempt from national taxes on salaries, wages and emoluments paid by the Union.

Article 12

However, EU officials pay a ‘Solidarity Levy’ of 6% and a ‘Community Tax’ that ranges between 8% and 45% of their ‘basic salary’.

If EU officials receive “outside income”, e.g., by renting out property in their home country, they will pay all the same taxes as other citizens of their tax residence country.

Besides these two taxes, EU officials also have a number of other deductions from their salaries:

This article will explain how much is the Solidarity Levy and the Community Tax.

How much do EU officials earn

Curious about pay in EU institutions? ReadHow much do EU officials earn?

Solidarity Levy

For most EU officials, the Solidarity Levy is 6% of the basic salary.

The Solidarity Levy is 7% for officials in grade AD15, step 2, and above. This higher Solidarity Levy rate affects maybe a few hundred EU officials in the very highest EU jobs like Directors General of European Commission DGs.

Let’s take a very common position in the European Commission – an Administrator in grade 5. The basic monthly salary in grade AD5 is EUR 5453,02. This means that the person would pay a Solidarity Levy of EUR 327.18 from its monthly salary.

The Solidarity Levy is temporary measure that was introduced on 1 January 2014 and is supposed to end on 31 December 2023. It is not clear whether application of the Solidarity Levy will be extended.

Community Tax

The Community Tax ranges from 8% to 45% of an EU official’s basic salary.

The Community Tax is similar to income tax in EU countries.

The formula for the Community Tax is included in this Regulation. The EUR values in the image below refer to the tax levied proportionally to the daily amount of basic salary.

EU Community Tax rate in proportion to amount of basic salary | Source: Article 4 of the Regulation (EEC, EURATOM, ECSC) No 260/68 of 29 February 1968 laying down the conditions and procedure for applying the tax for the benefit of the European Communities

If you assume that there are 22 working days in months, you get the following monthly Community Tax values:

  • 8.00% tax on basic salaries between EUR 438.02 and 7,731.12
  • 10.00% tax on basic salaries between EUR 7,731.34 and 10,649.98
  • 12.50% tax on basic salaries between EUR 10,649.20 and 12,205.38
  • 15.00% tax on basic salaries between EUR 12,206.60 and 13,859.34
  • 17.50% tax on basic salaries between EUR 13,859.56 and 15,415.74
  • 20.00% tax on basic salaries between EUR 15,414.96 and 16,922.62
  • 22.50% tax on basic salaries between EUR 16,923.24 and 18,479.68
  • 25.00% tax on basic salaries between EUR 18,481.90 and 19,986.56
  • 27.50% tax on basic salaries between EUR 19,987.38 and 21,541.96
  • 30.00% tax on basic salaries between EUR 21,543.38 and 23,045.84
  • 32.50% tax on basic salaries between EUR 23,047.06 and 24,605.90
  • 35.00% tax on basic salaries between EUR 24,607.12 and 26,153.78
  • 40.00% tax on basic salaries between EUR 26,114.00 and 27,669.18
  • 45.00% tax on basic salaries above EUR 27,669.40

Administrators effectively pay a Community Tax between 8% and 27.5% of their monthly basic salary.

Assistants effectively pay a Community Tax between 8% and 12.5% of their monthly basic salary.

Based on their basic salaries, only the European Commission President, Vice-Presidents and Commissioners pay the Community Tax in the higher brackets of 30-45%.

Community Tax for Administrators in 1st step of each grade from AD5 to AD16

You can find the full European Commission Salary Grid here. In the below table we have taken the first step in each grade of the Salary Grid for Administrators and calculated the proportional Community Tax amount.

GradeMonthly basic salary in step 1Community tax %Community Tax in EUR
AD 1621211.1827.50%5833.07
AD 1518747.1425.00%4686.79
AD 1416569.3120.00%3313.86
AD 1314644.5317.50%2562.79
AD 1212943.3115.00%1941.50
AD 1111439.7112.50%1429.96
AD 1010110.8210.00%1011.08
AD 98936.2610.00%893.63
AD 87898.1610.00%789.82
AD 76980.668.00%558.45
AD 66169.728.00%493.58
AD 55453.028.00%436.24
Community Tax for Administrators in 1st step of each grade from AD5 to AD16

Community Tax for Assistants in 1st step of each grade from AST1 to AST11

You can find the full European Commission Salary Grid here. In the below table we have taken the first step in each grade of the Salary Grid for Assistants and calculated the proportional Community Tax amount.

GradeMonthly basic salary in step 1Community tax %Community Tax in EUR
AST 1111439.7112.50%1429.96
AST 1010110.8210.00%1011.08
AST 98936.2610.00%893.63
AST 87898.1610.00%789.82
AST 76980.668.00%558.45
AST 66169.728.00%493.58
AST 55453.028.00%436.24
AST 44819.568.00%385.56
AST 34259.658.00%340.77
AST 23764.848.00%301.19
AST 13327.498.00%266.20
Community Tax for Assistants in 1st step of each grade from AST5 to AST11

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2 responses to “Do EU officials pay tax?”

  1. As a retired Belgian civil servant considering a job at the EU as a contract agent FGIII, there are several tax and pension-related questions:
    1. Do you need to declare this EU income to the Belgian tax authorities?
    2. Is this EU income considered as professional income under Belgian taxation?
    3. What will be the impact on my Belgian civil servant pension?

    Can you please help me with these questions?

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