La Dernière Heure has discovered a tax haven next door : Flanders.
The occasion is that since 1 July, the gift tax on houses and apartments has been cut. The French-language newspaper La DH made a list of the tax differences between the three regions. Officallly Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders are not supposed to compete with each other by imposing lower taxes, there are quite a few differences :
- the tax on the registration of cars. For heavy cars, such as a BMW X5 (4 litres diesel (x)drive at a cost of €80,000) this tax is only €468.90. In Brussels and Wallonia it is € 4,957 euros, ten times as much.
- the gift tax on houses and apartments is much lower.
- the local tax charged on top of the income tax is usually between 4 and 9%. There are three communes in Belgium that do not charge this “council tax”, these are De Panne, Knokke and Koksijde, all on the Belgian coast in … West Flanders.
- no license fee. For years, Belgians had to pay a radio and tv tax. Flanders abolished it over ten years ago, but people in Wallonia still pay the full tax of €100. In Brussels it has merged into the €89 tax due by the head of the household.
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