Sales duty on real estate

The sale of immovable property must be done by notarial deed and therefore also be registered. The Flemish sales duty applies if the immovable property sold is located in Flanders.

The buyer is the person who has to pay the tax.

• When registering a notarial deed of sale, you pay the sales duty in advance to the notary. Upon receipt of an assessment notice from the Flemish Tax Service, the notary will pay the sales duty due.
• If you register the private sales contract before the notarial deed, sales duty must be paid immediately upon registration by the person registering the contract.

• The sales duty is calculated on the value agreed between the buyer and seller, but should not be less than the normal sales value of the immovable property transferred.
• If the deed underestimates the sales value (shortfall estimate), a tax increase (in Dutch) (in Dutch) is due.
• In the Flemish Region, the basic rate is 10%. In addition, there are some reduced rates, reductions or exemptions for which you have to meet certain conditions. If you do not fulfil all the conditions or do not fulfil them on time, you will have to pay additional duties and possibly a fine (in Dutch) (in Dutch). Some reductions are only granted after a certain period during which you must meet the conditions.

• When purchasing your sole own dwelling, the sales duty is 6% if you meet a number of conditions. The main conditions are that the reduced rate only applies to purchases by natural persons, and that you must be registered in the population register at that address within three years of the purchase. If renovations are needed, this is a deadline you should take into account.
  The rate can be further reduced to 5% if, at the time of purchase, you undertake to carry out a major energy renovation to your sole own dwelling. You have five years to carry out this major energy renovation.
  Is your sole own dwelling a protected monument? Then you only have to pay 1% registration duties if you invest in conservation or renovation works on time. Again, you have five years to do so.

• The social housing companies (SHMs) and the Flemish Social Housing Company (VMSW) offer housing and building plots in the Flemish Region on favourable terms to people with modest incomes. For such social housing purchases (in Dutch) (in Dutch), the sales duty is reduced to 1.5%.

• If you purchase immovable property in order to let it later through a recognised social housing letting agency (in Dutch) (in Dutch), under certain conditions you only have to pay 7% sales duty.

• You can register with the Flemish Tax Service as a professional seller of immovable property (in Dutch) (in Dutch), so that you only have to pay 4% sales duty on your professional purchases.

• Specific reduced rates or exemptions apply in the case of an exchange of undeveloped land for an agricultural holding (in Dutch) (in Dutch).

• If you purchase a prtoected monument (in Dutch) (in Dutch) (which is not your sole own dwelling) and meet certain investment obligations, you only have to pay 5% sales duty.

• Under certain conditions, you may deduct the sales duty you paid on a previous dwelling (in Dutch) (in Dutch) from the sales duty you have to pay on a subsequent dwelling (so-called “portability”). In most cases, it concerns successive purchases and a move within two years.
• When buying a sole own “modest” dwelling, you can enjoy a duty reduction of 5,600 or 4,800 euros in addition to the reduced rate. A modest dwelling is one with a maximum purchase price of 200,000 euros. For dwellings located in the core cities or the Flemish periphery around Brussels (Vlaamse Rand), this may be a maximum of 220,000 euros.
• If you resell your dwelling within 2 years of purchase, you may reclaim thee-fifths of the sales duty paid (in Dutch) (in Dutch), if you paid 10% sales duty at the time of purchase. Sales contracts taxed at a reduced rate are not eligible.

• You receive an exemption from sales duty for some special transfers of real estate (in Dutch) (in Dutch). The most important is that no sales duty is payable if VAT is already due on the transfer of immovable property, e.g. on the purchase of new dwellings or flats.
• There is an exemption from sales duty for undeveloped immovable property for which a nature management plan has been approved (in Dutch) (in Dutch).
• Specific reduced rates or exemptions apply in the case of an exchange of undeveloped land for an agricultural holding (in Dutch) (in Dutch).
• Sales that take place within the framework of the realisation of a brownfield project can be exempted from gift tax, sales duty and division duty (in Dutch) (in Dutch).