Belgium · Tax regime
Solidarity contribution on capital gains
Reformed
Last verified July 2026
In force from 1 January 2026. Not retroactive — gains accrued up to 31 December 2025 are protected, which makes the 31 December 2025 valuation of every Belgian resident's portfolio a permanent tax attribute.
This is the end of a genuine European anomaly. Belgium's absence of a general capital gains tax was the reason a certain kind of wealthy family tolerated 50%-plus rates on income and some of the world's harshest inheritance taxes. The 10% headline is mild by European standards — but it removes the structural logic of being Belgian-resident, and it arrives alongside a securities account tax that already penalises exactly the portfolios it now taxes.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- 10% of in-scope gains above the annual exemption of EUR 10,000 (indexed)
- Physical presence
- Applies to Belgian tax residents
- Family
- individual; the exemption is per taxpayer
- Permanent residency
- n/a
- Citizenship
- n/a
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- Belgian tax residentcapital gains on financial instruments, insurance contracts, crypto-assets or currencies realised on or after 1 January 2026
What can go wrong
- Establish and document the 31 December 2025 value of every in-scope holding. Historic gains are excluded, and that exclusion is only worth what you can evidence. This is the single most time-sensitive piece of Belgian planning and the window to do it properly has already passed for anyone who did not act.
- Substantial and controlling shareholdings follow a separate, harsher regime than the flat 10% — founder and family-company stakes need specific advice rather than the headline rate.
- The EUR 10,000 exemption grows to a maximum of EUR 15,000 only if you realise no taxable gains for up to 5 years, which is a perverse incentive against rebalancing.
- It stacks with the 0.15% Securities Account Tax on accounts averaging over EUR 1m — and that tax applies to the whole balance once the threshold is crossed, so a EUR 1,000,001 account is taxed on the full amount.
- A draft personal income tax reform bill was introduced in January 2026 with further changes. Belgian tax policy is in an unusually active phase; nothing here should be treated as stable.