Belgium

Belgian residents are those who establish their domicile, or failing that their centre of economic interests, in Belgium, including anyone registered in a Belgian commune's population register. For married couples or legal cohabitants, residence follows where the family is located.

The Belgian tax year runs 1 January to 31 December. The return for income year x is filed during year x+1, the tax authorities issue an assessment notice by 30 June of year x+2, and any tax due is payable within two months of that notice. Spouses and legal cohabitants must file jointly even though their incomes are taxed separately.

Non-residents are taxed on Belgian-source income at the same schedule rates as residents, though some deductions or tax rebates are only available to non-residents who earn at least 75% of their worldwide professional income in Belgium. Non-residents also pay a flat 7% communal surcharge, rather than the 0-9% variable surcharge residents pay.

Employees may deduct a standard 30% of gross earnings, capped at EUR 5,930, in lieu of substantiated actual expenses; company directors get a flat 3% standard deduction capped at EUR 3,130. Pension savings contributions, group-insurance and life-insurance premiums, charitable contributions, and a share of alimony payments to relatives also give rise to deductions or tax reductions.

Belgium's expat tax regime, in force from 1 January 2022 under the law published 31 December 2021, offers a separate but largely identical status for executives and qualifying researchers recruited from abroad or seconded to Belgium within an international group, for up to five years with a possible three-year extension. Executives (not researchers) must meet a minimum gross annual taxable income of EUR 75,000, and the employer may pay up to 30% of gross annual taxable income as a tax-free expense allowance, capped at EUR 90,000 a year.

Businesses with annual turnover not exceeding EUR 25,000 (excluding VAT) can opt into a small-enterprise exemption scheme under which they do not charge VAT to customers, file periodic VAT returns, or remit VAT to the Treasury, while still holding a VAT identification number.

Belgium zero-rates exports and intra-Community supplies of goods, which allow VAT credit recovery, while exempting without credit medical services with a therapeutic purpose, social services, education, banking and insurance, and land and real estate sales.

Belgium's 2026 capital gains tax exempts the first EUR 10,000 of gains on the general category of financial assets each year, with a limited carry-forward of unused exemption up to EUR 5,000 over five years. A separate category for significant shareholdings (an individual holding at least 20% of a company's shares) exempts the first EUR 1 million of such gains over a five-year period, and the tax excludes gains from historical holdings, speculative transactions, or gains realized in a professional context, which fall outside its 'normal management of private assets' scope.

Crypto-currencies are among the financial assets subject to Belgium's capital gains tax, alongside listed and unlisted securities, insurance products, and other currencies or investment gold. The same annual EUR 10,000 exemption on realized gains applies, with an unused portion of up to EUR 1,000 a year carried forward for five years, for a maximum exemption of EUR 15,000 after five years.