News article

Draft programme law submitted

On 27 May 2025, the government submitted the draft programme law to the House of Representatives. For VAT, it contains the following measures:

• exclusion of the reduced VAT rate of 6% for immovable property transactions involving dwellings that are at least 10 years old, both for the supply and the attachment to a building of the components or part of the components of the specific part of a central heating installation that runs on fossil fuels;
• the reintroduction of the reduced VAT rate of 6% for the sale of homes that have been demolished and rebuilt and that:
  • the buyer rents out on a long-term basis directly to private individuals who take up residence there and which have a habitable surface area of no more than 175 m²;
  • the buyer rents out on a long-term basis to or through (a management mandate) a social rental agency or to a social housing company recognised by the competent authority for social housing policy or other legal entity under public or private law with a social purpose;
  • the buyer, who is a natural person, uses the property as their sole and main residence and has a habitable surface area of no more than 175 m²;
• the abolition of section VIII (fuels) of Table B of the Annex to Royal Decree 20, which means that the VAT rate will increase from 12% to 21% for the following goods:
  • uncalcined petroleum coke, used as fuel.
  • coke and semi-coke from coal, lignite or peat;
  • brown coal and compressed brown coal, with the exception of git;
  • coal and solid fuels manufactured from coal;

The above measures were to take effect on 1 July 2025. The government has therefore requested that the draft programme law be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

The retroactive abolition of the extension from 7 to 10 years for the limitation period in cases of fraud was removed from the draft programme law and will be included in a preliminary draft law containing various VAT provisions.