Since 1 January 2026, Belgium taxes capital gains realised on financial assets. The rule targets individuals, not companies — and its architecture of brackets, exemptions and exceptions deserves a line-by-line read before reshaping anything in a director's portfolio.
Standard rate: 10% on capital gains from financial assets (shares, bonds, funds, investment-linked insurance, crypto-assets, currencies). Annual exemption of EUR 10,000, indexed. Only gains realised from 1 January 2026 are caught, with a reference value set at 31 December 2025. Companies are not affected. Tangible movable property — including artworks — stays outside the scope of the tax.
Belgium had long been an outlier: in most OECD countries, an individual's capital gains on securities have been taxed for years. The Belgian framework spared them as long as they fell within the normal management of private wealth. That singularity ends with the law introducing a capital gains tax on financial assets, in force since 1 January 2026. For a director holding part of their wealth in a securities portfolio, the net return now reads differently.
Who is caught — and who is not
The tax applies to individuals and to certain not-for-profit entities. Companies are not affected: a gain realised inside a corporate structure subject to corporate income tax follows its own regime, separate from this new tax. That divide matters for the director who holds securities sometimes personally, sometimes through a holding or patrimonial company.
The material scope is broad. It covers shares, bonds, funds and trackers, insurance contracts with an investment component (branch 21, branch 23), crypto-assets, certain currencies and investment gold. Only transfers for consideration trigger the tax: sale, exchange, contribution, redemption of units. Gifts and inheritances are not taxable transfers — but any future gain will then be computed on the price paid by the original holder.
Ten percent — and an exemption worth attention
For the bulk of financial assets held by an individual, the rate is 10% on the net realised gain. Each taxpayer benefits from an annual exemption of EUR 10,000, indexed. Where unused, part of it can be carried forward — broadly an extra EUR 1,000 per year, capped around EUR 15,000. In practice, an investor who realises modest gains each year can build up an exemption buffer for a larger disposal.
The mechanism also allows offsetting: capital losses realised in the same year can be set against that year's gains. The annual net balance forms the taxable base. The precise mechanics — loss carry-forward, interplay with bank withholding — fall to the implementing rules and should be tracked.
The tax does not strike the entire historical gain. The reference value is, in principle, the market value at closing on 31 December 2025. Everything accrued before that date stays outside scope. But without a reliable 31/12/2025 valuation, the calculation can turn unfavourable: documenting the value of your positions on that date is a concrete precaution.
Substantial shareholdings: a regime apart
A director holding at least 20% of the rights in a company falls under a separate regime, designed for business transfers. An exemption covers the first one million euros of gain over a five-year period. Above that, a progressive scale applies, gentler than the flat 10% on its lower brackets.
| Gain bracket | Rate |
|---|---|
| First EUR 1,000,000 (over 5 years) | Exempt |
| 0 – 2,500,000 | 1.25% |
| 2,500,000 – 5,000,000 | 2.5% |
| 5,000,000 – 10,000,000 | 5% |
| Above 10,000,000 | 10% |
| Transfer to a non-EEA entity | 16.5% |
Two practical points. The substantial-shareholding test is assessed individually: a married couple jointly holding more than 20% but where each stays below the threshold does not necessarily qualify — each is then deemed to hold less than 20%. Separately, the so-called internal transfer — selling shares to a company the seller controls with their family — is treated apart and taxed at 33%. A routine estate-planning step can therefore land in the heaviest band if it is poorly framed.
How the tax is collected
Banks withhold the tax at source on gains realised on financial instruments and certain insurance contracts. For other gains — internal transfers, substantial shareholdings, gold — no withholding is foreseen: the taxpayer declares them in their personal income tax return. A taxpayer may opt out of bank withholding by informing their bank, the choice applying for the relevant income year. The withholding mechanism also carries transitional measures for the first period of application.
What stays outside the scope
The tax targets financial assets. It does not target tangible movable property. An artwork held by an individual is not a financial instrument: the gain on its sale does not enter the base of the new tax. It remains governed by the general principle of art. 90 §1 of the Belgian Income Tax Code: exempt when it falls within the normal management of private wealth, taxable as miscellaneous income (33%) where the authorities see a speculative operation exceeding that management.
"Outside scope" does not mean "without rules". The exemption for a gain on an artwork rests on the normal management of private wealth: spaced acquisitions, holding over time, the absence of a speculative structure. It is the coherence of the holding, documented, that grounds legal certainty — not the nature of the asset alone.
What a director gains by recalculating
The instinct, facing a new tax, is to wait for the circulars. With capital gains, the regime is already in force: the trade-offs are being made on the current year. Three workstreams deserve to be opened without delay.
First, document the value of positions at 31 December 2025, so that an older gain is not captured for lack of evidence. Second, distinguish what is held personally from what is held through a company, since the regime differs. Third, re-read the hierarchy of asset classes: tax does not dictate an allocation, but it shifts the balance, and a coherent portfolio now integrates that parameter.
The first confidential meeting is not there to sell a solution, but to give each director a clear reading of what the tax changes for their situation, and of what remains within their control.