VAT registration in Belgium

• Currency: EUR

• VAT is called: BTW

• EU member: Yes

• Format tax number: 9999.999.999

• Format VAT number: BE9999.999.999

• VAT rate: 21%, 12%, 6% and 0%

Foreign companies that do not have an establishment in Belgium but that sell services in Belgium, e.g. real estate services or that deliver goods that are sold only when they are installed (so-called assembly deliveries), can in most cases avoid VAT registration. The reason is that Belgium applies reverse charge / Reverse Charge if the buyers are exclusively businesses that are VAT registered in Belgium. Reverse Charge means that the buyer must collect the VAT and that the seller invoices without VAT. However, the buyer's VAT number and why you invoice without VAT must be stated on the seller's invoice. Foreign companies that sell goods domestically in Belgium can apply a reverse charge for VAT / Reverse Charge provided that the buyer is either a Belgian company or that the buyer is foreign but is VAT registered in Belgium via a local representative.

The following transactions are examples of when VAT registration may become necessary in Belgium

• Internet sales to private individuals in Belgium of goods (when the value exceeds the threshold value for distance selling currently EUR 35,000)

• Sales of electronic or telecommunications services to private individuals in Belgium

• Transport of goods from Belgium to other countries carried out on behalf of private individuals, e.g. removal of household goods

• Passenger transport in Belgium

• Own warehouse in Belgium

• Business management on site in Belgium

• Purchase of goods from the EU to Belgium or sale of goods to the EU from Belgium

• Import to or export from Belgium

• Resale of several types of costs (eg hotel accommodation invoiced to other foreign companies or bus transfers in Belgium) that occur at conferences, trade fairs, etc.