Inheritance tax: three countries in one
Inheriting €200,000 from a brother costs around €62,000 in Flanders and close to €85,000 in Wallonia. Inheriting the same amount from a parent costs less than €15,000 anywhere. In Belgium it is not the amount that decides, it is the family relationship — then the Region. And one quiet rule, the one on recent gifts, catches up with estates you thought were settled.
Inheritance tax is a regional matter. Three sets of rates, three approaches to allowances, three lists of exemptions. And inside each Region, the rate depends first on the family relationship — that, not the amount, is what turns a levy of a few percent into a levy that takes most of the estate.
How the calculation works
Three principles apply everywhere.
⚠️ A Flemish exception that catches people out. For the "other persons" category, Flanders applies the rates to the sum of the shares of all those heirs, then splits the tax pro rata. Two nephews receiving €40,000 and €60,000 are therefore taxed as if on €100,000, not separately.
Flanders: three rates, and a split that pays off
| Band | Direct line and partner | Siblings | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
| €0 to €35,000 | 3% up to €50,000 | 25% | 25% |
| €35,000 to €75,000 | 30% | 45% | |
| €50,000 to €250,000 | 9% | 55% above €75,000 | 55% above €75,000 |
| Above €250,000 | 27% |
Flanders has the simplest scale in the direct line — three rates — and above all one feature that weighs heavily: the scale applies separately to the movable share and to the immovable share. Each one starts again at 3%. An estate made up half of property and half of investments is therefore taxed noticeably less than an equivalent estate concentrated in a single type of asset.
Unlike the two other Regions, Flanders has no separate category for uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces: they fall under the "other persons" category.
The partner allowance on movable property rises from €50,000 to €75,000 for deaths occurring from that date.
A singlevermindering appears: up to €100,000 per estate taxed at 3% then 9%, for a deceased person who leaves neither a partner nor descendants and who has named beneficiaries by will. It has to be claimed in the return.
Children under 21 get a reduction of €75 per full year left to run until they turn 21, and the surviving partner is entitled to half of the total the joint children receive.
Wallonia: the most progressive scale, and the heaviest between strangers
| Band | Direct line, spouse, legal cohabitants | Siblings | Uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €0 to €12,500 | 3% | 20% | 25% | 30% |
| €12,500 to €25,000 | 4% | 25% | 30% | 35% |
| €25,000 to €50,000 | 5% | 35% up to €75,000 | 40% up to €75,000 | 60% up to €75,000 |
| €50,000 to €100,000 | 7% | |||
| €100,000 to €150,000 | 10% | 50% up to €175,000 | 55% up to €175,000 | 80% above €75,000 |
| €150,000 to €200,000 | 14% | |||
| €200,000 to €250,000 | 18% | 65% above €175,000 | 70% above €175,000 | |
| €250,000 to €500,000 | 24% | |||
| Above €500,000 | 30% |
Nine bands in the direct line: the progression is gentle, and the 30% rate is only reached above half a million per heir. At the other end, the 80% applied to people with no family link above €75,000 is the highest rate in the country, level with Brussels.
The allowances: the first band of €12,500 is exempt for an heir in the direct line, the spouse and the legal cohabitant, with a further exemption of €12,500 where the net share does not exceed €125,000. Children under 21 get €2,500 per full year left until they turn 21. Other heirs are exempt if the net estate does not exceed €620.
Brussels: a brutal step at €175,000
| Band | Direct line, spouse, cohabitants | Siblings | Uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €0 to €50,000 | 3% | 20% to 30% depending on the band | 35% | 40% |
| €50,000 to €100,000 | 8% | 40% | 50% | 55% (up to €75,000) |
| €100,000 to €175,000 | 9% | 55% | 60% | 65% |
| €175,000 to €250,000 | 18% | 60% | 70% above €175,000 | 80% above €175,000 |
| €250,000 to €500,000 | 24% | 65% above €250,000 | ||
| Above €500,000 | 30% |
The Brussels scale in the direct line is the most jagged of the three: the rate doubles in one go, from 9% to 18%, on crossing €175,000. That is the steepest step in the country in this category.
An allowance of €15,000 applies to the first band of the share going to the spouse, the cohabitant or an heir in the direct line. Children under 21 receive €2,500 per full year left, and the surviving spouse half of the extra allowances of the joint children. Other heirs pay nothing if the estate does not exceed €1,250.
A Brussels quirk: the de facto cohabitant gets the direct line rates if they were actually living together on the day of death and had formed a common household for at least one uninterrupted year.
The family home: exempt everywhere, under conditions
exemption
exemption
exemption
For heirs in the direct line who do not qualify for the exemption, Wallonia and Brussels provide a reduced rate on the family home: 1% then 2% and 5% on the first bands in Wallonia, 2% then 5.3% and 6% in Brussels. In Brussels, the value taken into account for this reduced rate is capped at €250,000; the excess goes back to the normal rate.
The suspect period: the rule that catches up with gifts
This is the most moving target, and the one that costs the most when you ignore it. An unregistered gift — a hand gift, a bank gift — is brought back into the estate if the donor dies within a certain period. That period has gone from three to five years in all three Regions, but not at the same time.
| Region | Current period | Applies to gifts made since | Before that date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wallonia | 5 years | 1 January 2022 | 3 years |
| Flanders | 5 years | 1 January 2025 | 3 years |
| Brussels | 5 years | 1 January 2026 | 3 years |
Paying the gift tax takes it for good out of the scope of inheritance tax, whatever the date of death. That is the whole trade-off: 3% or 3.3% straight away in the direct line, against the risk of seeing the gift fall back into a scale that can climb to 27 or 30%.
| Gift tax, movable property | Direct line and partners | Other persons |
|---|---|---|
| Flanders | 3% | 7% |
| Brussels | 3% | 7% |
| Wallonia | 3.3% | 5.5% |
For immovable property, the scales are identical in all three Regions: in the direct line and between partners, 3% up to €150,000, 9% up to €250,000, 18% up to €450,000 and 27% above that. For the others, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% on the same bands.
⚠️ Watch out for out-of-date documents. Many pages, professional ones included, still mention a three-year period. That is no longer correct in any Region in 2026. In Flanders, gifts of immovable property follow a separate rule: a 3-year period, with no inheritance tax on the property given, but with its value counted when working out the bands on the rest.
Deadlines and competent Region
| Place of death | Filing deadline |
|---|---|
| In Belgium | 4 months |
| Elsewhere in the European Economic Area | 5 months |
| Outside the European Economic Area | 6 months |
The competent Region is that of the last tax residence of the deceased. If they lived in several places in Belgium during their last five years, the one where they resided longest over that period wins. A recent move is therefore not enough to change the applicable scale.
In Flanders, the surcharges for late filing run from 5% — filing within five months of the deadline — to 20% from the eighteenth month on, and no return at all leads to an automatic assessment increased by 20%. Undervaluing the assets carries a surcharge of 5 to 20% depending on the gap, with no surcharge if it stays below 10%. We do not publish the Walloon and Brussels scales: the official pages were not consultable at the time of checking.
What is coming, and what is not here yet
A reform already adopted is due to cut Walloon rates sharply: a maximum of 15% in the direct line, 33% between siblings, 35% for uncles and nephews, 40% for the others, and the exemption on the first band raised to €25,000. It applies to deaths occurring from 1 January 2028, and to gift deeds signed from that same date. None of this applies today.
On the Flemish side, a reform is announced in the coalition agreement, but so far it has only changed the partner allowance and introduced the singlevermindering. The rates of 3, 9 and 27% are unchanged, and the Flemish tax authority itself says its page will be completed as soon as formal decisions are taken.