The property tax (précompte immobilier) is the tax every owner pays each year for holding a property. Despite its French name, it is not an advance on another tax: it is a fully-fledged, regional tax whose amount often comes as a surprise because it stacks three layers of authority.
Who pays it?
The person liable is whoever is the owner on 1 January of the year. Selling during the year changes nothing for the current year: it is the owner on the first day who receives the tax assessment. On the sale, the notary and the parties often arrange a pro rata split between seller and buyer, but that is a private arrangement, with no effect on the administration.
The usufructuary, the long-lease holder (emphyteusis) or the holder of a building right (superficies) may be liable in place of the bare owner, depending on the right attached to the property.
How it is calculated
The calculation starts from the property's indexed cadastral income - the notional rental income of 1975, revalued each year. To it are applied:
- a regional base rate;
- the provincial surcharges (centimes additionnels);
- the municipal surcharges.
These surcharges are no detail: they make up the bulk of the final amount. The regional base rate is modest; it is the province and above all the municipality that, by voting their surcharges, determine what you will actually pay.
Why it varies from one municipality to another
This is the direct consequence of the previous point: two properties with an identical cadastral income, one in Namur, the other in a neighbouring municipality, can bear a noticeably different tax, purely because the municipal surcharges differ. The property tax is thus part of the cost of ownership that a shrewd buyer compares from one municipality to another, just like the price per square metre.
The possible reductions
Depending on the Region and the situation, reductions apply: a so-called modest dwelling, the presence of dependants, a situation of disability, sometimes automatically, sometimes on request. They can lighten the bill significantly. Check with the competent administration of the property's Region for those you are entitled to.
Three Regions, three administrations
Collection is being regionalised: Flanders calculates and collects its own tax, while Wallonia and the Brussels Region still rely in part on the FPS Finance. The reduction rules and the practical arrangements therefore differ by location - hence the value of starting from the regional source corresponding to the property.