The Belgian Parliament adopted a law which contains several amendments to the Value Added Tax Act, in December 2021. The adopted law is published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 31 December 2021. The provisions of the adopted law are generally in line with those of the proposed amendments, as we reported in our previous news items. Accordingly, the most important amendments concern:

  • Exemption for non-profit organisations with aims of a political, trade-union, religious, patriotic, philosophical, philanthropic or civic nature
  • Provision of furnished accommodation
  • Deduction of VAT under “actual use method”
  • Abolition of presumptive VAT scheme
  • VAT refund arrangements
  • Reduced VAT rate for hair implants
  • Work concerning immovable property
  • Place of supply of distance sales of imported goods

In contrast to the proposed amendments, the adopted law does not provide for a reduced VAT rate for gas and electricity. Moreover, it does not include an extension for the application of the reduced VAT rate for the supply, intra-Community acquisition and import of mouth masks and hydroalcoholic gels used in the fight against Covid-19, because this extension is already provided by Royal Decree of 21 December 2021, as approved by the Belgian Council of Ministers.

For details on the above amendments, we refer to our previous news items: Update on proposed amendments to the Belgian VAT Act and Proposed amendments to the Belgian VAT Act. If you have any questions about the new rules, do not hesitate to reach out to us.