Questioner: Dia
I have a question about whether or not to be a resident of Belgium. If I am deregistered from Belgium, but still have an owner-occupied home in Belgium. Have a residence in Thailand, but have not been there for a year and a half due to the Covid, but have lived in Belgium all that time. Am I still a Thai resident? Or am I automatically a Belgian resident again?
Thanks in advance.
Reaction Lung Addie
If I understand correctly: you are therefore REGISTERED in Belgium, and possibly REGISTERED at the Belgian Embassy in Bangkok. (no obligation by the way)
Legally speaking, if you stay in Belgium for a long time, you should register again in the municipality where you currently live. If you leave later, you will also have to deregister again and, with the Model 8 that you will receive upon deregistration, register again at the Belgian embassy.
If you don't, then you are 'officially' still living in Thailand. However, the government will not come looking for you as long as there is no special reason to do so. It will therefore have no consequences and you will not hear anything about it. But you never know that someone might fall over, then you could get into trouble.
These problems, with consequences, may arise from the fact that you do live in Belgium again.
You can then get problems with:
– The Federal Taxes as you are now treated as: 'taxpayer not residing in Belgium', which also, albeit only slightly, has certain advantages.
– The municipality could play on its leg because you also do not pay certain costs that the municipality imposes on its residents.
-The Province: surface waters, resident of the province….. in which you, as a resident abroad, do not participate.
Short answer: YES you are still officially registered as living in Thailand, but it CAN go WRONG.