Legislation & grants
6% VAT in Belgium: conditions, invoice wording, pitfalls
Home over 10 years old, private use, invoiced by the contractor: when 6% VAT applies in Belgium, the wording to demand on the invoice, and what stays at 21%.
By the Batizzy teamPublished Updated 9 min read
On a €20,000 job excluding VAT, paying 6% instead of 21% makes a €3,000 difference. It is often the biggest saving in a whole renovation, ahead of any regional aid. The conditions still have to be met, and they are more precise than most people think: the age of the home is counted in calendar years, its use after the work counts as much as its current use, and the materials must be supplied by the contractor. Since summer 2025, part of the heating has even dropped out of the reduced rate.
The conditions, one by one
The 6% rate comes from heading XXXI of table A in the annex to Royal Decree no. 20. All the conditions listed by the FPS Finance must be met.
A home more than 10 years old
Two dates matter: the year the home was first occupied, which counts as a full year, and the date of the first invoice for the work, deposit invoices included. First occupation must have taken place in a calendar year at least ten years before that first invoice.
The FPS Finance gives this example: a home first lived in during 2012, new windows fitted in December 2022 with a deposit invoice dated 5 November 2022. The condition is met. In practice, a home first occupied in 2016 can get the reduced rate for work whose first invoice is dated 2026.
A private home after the work
Once the work is finished, the property must be used as a private home for more than half of it, and the work must at least partly concern the private part. In that case, 6% applies to the whole job, business part included: a self-employed person who uses 30% of the house for work can have the whole roof redone at 6%. Repainting only a separate office, on the other hand, stays at 21%.
Renovation, not a new build
The work must transform, renovate, improve, repair or maintain the home, ordinary cleaning excluded. Demolition that does not precede a renovation stays at 21%, as do the intellectual services of an architect, surveyor or engineer.
A job that goes too far counts as a new build, taxed at 21%. Two tests decide. The added floor area cannot exceed the old part that is kept, and the new part must form a single whole with the old one. The load-bearing structure kept must make up at least 50% of the total length of the load-bearing structure.
Work supplied and invoiced to you
The work must be supplied and invoiced directly to you, the person using the home: owner, tenant, usufructuary. If the contractor buys the materials and invoices them together with the installation, the whole lot goes to 6%. Materials you buy yourself stay at 21%.
Registration of the contractor with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE) is not one of these tax conditions. Checking the number before you sign is still a good habit, and our CBE checklist shows how.
What stays at 21%
The FPS Finance's detailed list puts the following at 21%, among others:
- gas, oil or coal heating installations for their specific part (see below), as well as stoves and convectors running on those fuels;
- light fittings that are not fully recessed and convectors that simply plug into a socket;
- replacing a faulty kitchen appliance, such as a built-in oven;
- the garden: landscaping, fences, paths, a terrace at the far end of the garden, a shed, a swimming pool, a pond;
- ordinary household cleaning.
On the other hand, a fitted kitchen installed with its units, a terrace or conservatory attached to the house, external shutters or blinds, chimney sweeping and boiler servicing, even for a gas boiler, stay at 6% if the other conditions are met.
Heating since 29 July 2025
This change affects a lot of quotes. For a gas or oil boiler installed or replaced during a renovation, the so-called specific part goes to 21%, labour included: the boiler, the flue, the fuel supply, the fixings, the circulation pump built into the boiler. Radiators, underfloor heating, pipework, thermostatic valves, the expansion vessel or the thermostat stay at 6%, because they can later serve a heat pump.
The invoice must clearly split the two rates. Without that split, everything goes to 21%. For a hybrid system (back-up boiler plus heat pump) sold at one overall price, the tax authority accepts a flat split: 35% of the price at 21% and 65% at 6%. Servicing and repairs of an existing installation are not affected, and heating that is 100% non-fossil (heat pump, pellets, wood) keeps the reduced rate.
Illustrative example: you replace a gas boiler for €6,000 excluding VAT, of which €4,500 for the boiler, flue and installation and €1,500 for two new radiators. VAT comes to €945 on the first part (21%) and €90 on the second (6%), €1,035 in total. At the reduced rate for everything, as before 29 July 2025, it would have been €360.
The compulsory wording on the invoice
There is no longer a certificate to sign. Since 1 July 2022, the contractor states on the invoice everything that justifies the reduced rate, and the invoice carries a set legal wording in French, Dutch or German. In substance, it says: unless you object in writing within one month of receiving the invoice, you are presumed to acknowledge that (1) the work is done on a home first occupied in a calendar year at least ten years before the date of the first invoice for that work, (2) after the work, the home is used exclusively or mainly as a private home, and (3) the work is supplied and invoiced to an end consumer. If any of these conditions is not met, the standard 21% rate applies and you, the customer, become liable for the tax, interest and fines due in respect of those conditions.
Read it before you pay: it makes you liable if one of the three conditions is not met. If the rate looks wrong, tell the contractor in writing within a month of the invoice, ideally by registered letter, and you will get a corrected invoice. If in doubt, the FPS Finance can be reached on 02 572 57 57.
Three worked examples
The amounts and floor areas in these three cases are illustrative examples.
A kitchen in Brussels, €8,000 excluding VAT
Home first occupied in 2010, owner-occupier, fitted kitchen installed by the contractor.
| 21% rate | 6% rate | |
|---|---|---|
| Excl. VAT | €8,000 | €8,000 |
| VAT | €1,680 | €480 |
| Incl. VAT | €9,680 | €8,480 |
| Saving | €1,200 |
Roof insulation in Liège, €4,500 excluding VAT
House built in 1985, owner-occupier, insulation supplied and fitted by the contractor.
| 21% rate | 6% rate | |
|---|---|---|
| Excl. VAT | €4,500 | €4,500 |
| VAT | €945 | €270 |
| Incl. VAT | €5,445 | €4,770 |
| Saving | €675 |
In Wallonia, this kind of job can also be part of a project financed with a Rénopack, if the home makes the required PEB label jump. It is all explained in our article on the end of the Prime Habitation.
An extension: renovation or new build?
Floor areas are measured to the outer faces of the walls, cellars, attics and integrated garages included.
| Project | Old part kept | Area after the work | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 m² added to a 120 m² house | 120 m² | 150 m² | 6% possible |
| 150 m² added to a 100 m² house | 100 m² | 250 m² | 21% (new build) |
In the first case, the old part stays larger than the added part: if the extension forms a whole with the house and the other conditions are met, everything can stay at 6%. In the second case, the lot goes to 21%.
Common mistakes
A gas boiler invoiced at 6%
Since 29 July 2025, that is wrong for the boiler and its specific parts. Ask for a corrected quote, with both rates on separate lines, before you sign.
A deposit invoice issued too early
The first invoice is what counts, deposits included. For a home first occupied in 2016, a first invoice dated December 2025 stays at 21%. Dated January 2026, it can go to 6%.
Materials you bought yourself
Tiles bought at the shop and laid by the tradesman: 21% on the tiles, 6% on the laying only. If price matters, let the contractor supply them.
Counting the garden as part of the house
A terrace attached to the house can go to 6%, a terrace at the far end of the garden cannot. Same for an attached conservatory (6%) and a garden shed (21%).
An invoice without the wording
Without it, nothing justifies the reduced rate. Ask for it, and read it.
Special case: reverse charge between businesses
If you are VAT-registered yourself and must file periodic VAT returns, building work done for you falls under the reverse-charge system (the "co-contractor" rule). The invoice shows no VAT rate or amount: you declare the VAT. Since 1 January 2023, it carries a set legal wording (in French "Autoliquidation", in Dutch "Verlegging van heffing") stating that, unless you object in writing within one month, you are presumed to acknowledge that you are a taxable person required to file periodic returns, and that you are liable for the tax, interest and fines if that is not the case.
A VAT-registered business that does not file periodic returns must say so to the contractor when it gives its VAT number.
What Batizzy does, and what you still check
If you are a contractor, Batizzy's quote editor helps. Its VAT assistant asks the questions the rate depends on (home over 10 years old, private use after the work, end consumer), suggests 6% or 21% and keeps your answers in the quote. Each line can have its own rate, and the legal wording is printed as soon as one line is at 6%. For a VAT-registered customer, a switch moves the quote to reverse charge with the co-contractor wording. Lines for a gas or oil boiler still have to be set to 21% by you.