In box III, you declare the income from any real estate you may own, that can be actual rental income you receive or the theoretical income from a second or third residence.
If you only own the house you live in, you don’t need to declare anything at all, unless you rent out part of your house.
If you have a second residence, you need to declare the cadastral revenue. That figure can be found on the real property tax bill (the précompte immobilier/onroerende voorheffing). If you own it together, you each declare your share (normally 50/50) in your column (code 1106/2106). That cadastral revenue will be corrected for inflation (times 1.863 for 2021, 1.9084 for 2022) and multiplied by 1.4. Roughly speaking you will pay tax on the cadastral revenue.
I have a buy-to-let
If you own a rental property, you normally don’t declare the actual rent, just the cadastral revenue, also in code 1106/2106.
If the tenant is a company or someone who uses the property for his profession (e.g. a physician or an accountant), you must declare the rent you receive under code 1109/2109. You pay tax on the rental income minus a deduction of 40% (however, that deduction is limited to 3.07 times the cadastral revenue).
A furnished rental
When you receive rent for a furnished apartment, you must distinguish the rent for the apartment and the rent for the furniture.
The rent for the apartment is taxed in the same way as above. You just declare the cadastral revenue under code 1106/2106 and you do not pay more tax.
The rent for the furnishings is taxed at 30%. By default, the rent for the furnishing is 40% of the total rent you receive (unless you have agreed another ratio in the rental agreement). However, you can deduct 50% by way of expenses and you only declare half of the 40% of the rental in code 1156-08 (this is in Box VII, investment income).
If your property is listed on Airbnb, and you provide other services to your guests, such as breakfast, daily cleaning, internet, tv, … you normally charge these separately. If you don’t, you can calculate the part that is income from additional services at a percentage of about 20% of the rental income (see Airbnb).for further explanations.
And property abroad?
For many years, Belgium had different tax rules for rental income for properties in Belgium and for properties outside Belgium. For properties in Belgium the taxable income is based on the cadastral revenue. However, for overseas properties, taxpayers had to declare the actual rent or the rental value
Following three decisions of the European Court of Justice, the finance minister decided he would calculate a cadastral revenue to each property outside Belgium that is (partly) owned by a Belgian resident. Trust the minister to take that road of the most resistance. The tax administration will give a cadastral revenue to all overseas properties and calculate the tax based on that cadastral revenue. From the current value or the purchase value they will calculate the rental value in 1975 like for Belgium properties.You can read here how this was put in place.
If you did not know you have to report the value, or if you acquired a new property through an inheritance or otherwise, if you divest that property or if you made major transformations, you have to report that with this form in French or in Dutch.
If you have reported your overseas property, you should have received a letter of the tax authorities determining the cadastral revenue of your property. You need to declare your share in your column (code 1106/2106).
You cannot take any deductions for expenses, and you cannot anymore deduct the income tax you paid on the property abroad.
Although you have to declare the cadastral revenue, that doesn’t mean that you will actually pay tax on that income. The double tax treaty doesn’t let Belgium tax rental income., see “Cross border taxation“. However, you have to complete box III.B
This means that rental income is not taxed but pushes the tax on other income that is taxable in Belgium in the higher tax brackets
Your tax return:
- the Guide
- Tax filing in Corona Times
- Is this your first time?
- Couples and Children
- When do I need to file?
- on Paper or Online?
- Filing Online
- Filing on Paper
- The Taxman sends a Tax Proposal
- Help!?
- Checklist
- Box I – Contact Details and Bank Account
- Box II – Your Family Situation
- Box III – Real Estate
- Box IV – Earnings
- Box V – Pensions
- Cross Border Taxation
- Box VI – Maintenance Received
- Box VII – Investment Income
- Box VIII – Maintenance Paid and Losses from Previous Years
- Box IX – Mortgage Payments
- Box X – Other Tax Deductions
- Box XII – Paying your Taxes in Advance
- Capital Gains
- Box XIII – Overseas Accounts and Insurance Policies
- Box XIII – Trusts
- Stock Exchange Tax
- Tax on Securities Accounts
- Nowhere to hide
- The Tax Bill
- Appealing the Tax Bill
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