Belgium – Federal government agreement on VAT topics

On 31 January 2025, a Federal government agreement was reached, which among other topics include:

1. Near real time reporting:
From 2028, Belgium plans to implement a near real time reporting between VAT taxpayers and transactions for which a cash register is used. With the introduction of near real time reporting and e-invoicing that is planned to enter into force on 1 January 2026, cash registers, payments and invoicing system will be connected to the Tax Authority and the data will be transmitted automatically.

2. Simplification of VAT registers and daily receipts book
With the introduction of e-invoicing and near real time reporting. The government is looking at simplifying or abandoning creation of daily receipt book and other VAT registers.

3. VAT rate changes:
To address climate changes, the government wants to introduce below changes to VAT rates:

VAT rate on heat pumps will be lowered from 21% to 6%,
– VAT rate on coal will increase to 21%,
– VAT on the installation of a boiler using fossil fuels will be increased from 6% to 21% (in the event of the renovation of dwellings older than 10 years)

4. Modernisation of VAT sanction policy

It is planned that VAT sanction policy will take a modern approach that would take into account mitigating circumstances such as a review to determine if Belgian Treasury suffered any financial loss as a result of taxpayer’s offence.

5. Packaging tax is planned to be reduced on products that are significantly more expensive in Belgium than in neighbouring countries. This is to discourage cross-border purchases.