Brussels Family Tax-Poor but Security-Rich : Belgium: There is a family allowance and subsidized medical care. But taxes take nearly half of salaries.

A university professor, an editor of medical journals, two sons in public schools: They could as easily be a typical upper-middle-income family of four in the United States.

But Laurence Wolsey and Marguerite Loute and their two sons, Jonathan, 15, and Julien, 12, live in Brussels, not Burbank. And that makes their financial circumstances--and their entire outlook on life--very different.

The tax man takes a far bigger chunk of their income than he would in the United States. In return, they receive a great deal more in the form of direct payments from the government, government-mandated payments from their employers and government-subsidized services such as health care.

More than that, they feel a sense of security that a social safety net is firmly in place not only for them but also for their relatives and neighbors--in fact, for all Belgians. They are thankful that they are not exposed at home to the sort of grinding poverty that Wolsey sometimes encounters when he travels to academic conferences in the United States. “There are homeless people, beggars with signs asking for money or food,” Wolsey says. “Here we try to take better care of our people.”

There is nothing fancy about the Wolsey-Loutes’ own existence. They live in a slightly seedy area near the center of Brussels, in three stories of a turn-of-the-century townhouse that they bought for about $68,000 (plus a $13,000 sales tax) in 1976. They drive a small Volkswagen Polo sedan. Their vacations emphasize skiing and hiking, with nights at the homes of relatives and friends whenever possible. Their one extravagance is private music lessons: the recorder for father, the piano for mother and younger son.

“Our lifestyle is not very high,” admits Loute.

Wolsey, 46, an engineering professor at the University of Louvain, and Loute, 43, an editor and translator for the French-language edition of Patient Care magazine, have a before-tax income of about $100,000 a year.

Their tax payments are astronomical by American standards--about $46,000, or nearly half their salaries. And when you add what their employers must kick in toward the Belgian social security system--some $36,000 a year, or six times as much as would be required in the United States--then Wolsey and Loute take home slightly less than 40 cents for every dollar their employers spend.

But look what the Wolsey-Loutes get direct from the government:

* A family allowance of about $260 a month tax-free, because they have two children. In addition, Loute received a 14-week, fully paid maternity leave and lump-sum payments of about $600 when each of her sons was born.

* Subsidized, high-quality medical care. Last year the family paid less than $10 when Julien was hospitalized for two days to have two teeth removed, an operation that would have cost at least $1,000.

* Not only free public education but also heavily subsidized preschool care for each of the boys from the time they were 2 1/2-years-old, and the prospect of college education for perhaps $700 a year.

For Loute, who works for a private employer, the Belgian government also mandates nearly two months a year of bonus vacation pay, albeit heavily taxed. She receives about $60 a month in tax-free coupons that she can use toward grocery purchases--a sort of food stamps for the middle-class. And her employer pays her about $15 a month to cover half her commuting costs.