New levy includes progressive rates for large shareholders and exemptions up to 10,000 euros.

Early Friday, the Belgian Parliament approved a capital gains tax that will apply to profits earned from the sale of stocks or bonds.

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Specifically, the tax will apply to profits from the purchase and sale of financial products starting Jan. 1 at a general rate of 10%, although the first 10,000 euros will be exempt, a figure that can rise to 15,000 euros if no other sale has been made in the past five years.

Beyond this general rate, the measure provides for progressive taxation for taxpayers with a “substantial” stake in a company (more than 20% of its shares).

For them, gains of up to 1 million euros over a five-year period will be exempt, and the tax rate will gradually increase from 1.25% above that threshold to 10% for profits exceeding 10 million euros.

As for the financial instruments affected, the tax will not only apply to capital gains from the purchase and sale of stocks, bonds or derivatives, but also from crypto assets and gold.

In addition, all transactions carried out starting Jan. 1, 2026, will fall under the tax, while those conducted before that date will be exempt.

Agreed Measure

The tax approval marks the implementation of one of the flagship measures of the current government, composed of five political parties: N-VA (the Flemish nationalist party of Prime Minister Bart De Wever), MR (French-speaking liberals), Les Engages (French-speaking Christian democrats), CD&V (Flemish Christian democrats) and Vooruit (Flemish social democrats).

The capital gains tax was a key demand of the Flemish socialists in order to sign the coalition agreement, which also included priority measures for right-leaning parties such as a deep reform of unemployment benefits and pensions.

The tax was ultimately adopted Thursday night in Parliament with the support of the five governing parties, the French-speaking Socialists (PS) and the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB), while the party representing environmentalists from both regions (Ecolo-Groen) abstained.

Voting against were the Flemish liberals of Anders, the French-speaking social liberals of DeFI and the far-right Flemish party Vlaams Belang.

Capital Gains Taxes in Europe

Belgium had been part of the small group of European Union countries without a capital gains tax. From now on, that group will consist only of Cyprus and Luxembourg, according to the latest annual European Commission report on taxation published in June 2025.

Other European Union countries, however, tax profits from the purchase and sale of financial assets in very different ways.

Most — Germany, France, Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Slovenia and Sweden — tax financial capital gains by applying a flat rate under a specific tax category, while Denmark, Finland and Lithuania also have a specific tax but apply progressive rates.

Another group — Spain, Portugal, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Malta, Bulgaria and Slovakia — integrates this tax into their general personal income tax, while Italy and the Netherlands use other distinct models.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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