New Year's shock in Belgium: Rising costs and major reforms hit citizens
Belgium introduced a series of wide-ranging changes on January 1, 2026, affecting everything from salaries to taxes, environmental laws, and the cost of daily life for citizens and businesses across the country.
Many Belgian employees have seen an automatic salary increase of about 2.21% due to the link between wages and inflation, benefiting more than a million workers in various sectors such as logistics, insurance, and retail.
In Brussels, water prices have risen by about 12.5%, service vouchers have become more expensive and lost the tax discount. The rules for the low emission zone (LEZ) have also been tightened after being reintroduced, with fines starting from April for older vehicles entering the city.
Several major tax reforms have come into effect. The transitional capital gains tax has started, and the tax on the financial accounts of the wealthy, whose assets exceed one million euros, has doubled. Issuing electronic invoices has become mandatory for all companies registered for VAT when dealing with other companies.
The additional changes included raising the maximum value of meal vouchers, reducing VAT on heat pumps to support the transition to clean energy, and tightening the conditions for "supplementary jobs" near retirement age. The new rules also affected the deduction for company cars, reporting of cryptocurrencies according to EU standards DAC 8, and increasing the burden of drug costs to support the financing of innovative treatments.