Inheritance tax planning in Belgium: which strategies actually work

Inheritance tax planning comes down to a few legal choices you make during your lifetime: what you give away, when you give it, who you leave assets to and what you put in a will. No trick makes inheritance tax disappear. The difference between doing nothing and planning ahead can still be significant, as the worked examples below show.

We stick to strategies we can support with the official rates. Unless stated otherwise, the examples apply to a death in 2026 and to someone who lived in Flanders. Your notary always calculates the exact amount for your situation.

First: which region sets the rate?

For inheritance tax, what counts is the tax residence of the deceased. If they lived in more than one region during the five years before death, the region where they lived longest during that period applies. Where the house is located plays no role. The same rule applies to gift tax, but based on the tax residence of the donor.

Flanders collects inheritance and gift tax itself through the Vlaamse Belastingdienst. In Brussels and Wallonia, the FPS Finance still does this. The Flemish government has announced a reform of inheritance tax, but according to vlaanderen.be (in Dutch) nothing has been decided yet. The current rates therefore still apply.

Strategy 1: registered gifts

What you give away during your lifetime and have registered is subject to gift tax instead of inheritance tax. According to notaris.be, the tax authorities will not come back later to tax a registered gift of money, even if the donor dies shortly afterwards. For movable assets such as money or shares, the gift tax rate is also flat, whatever the amount.

Region of the donor	Direct line and partners	Other people
Flanders	3%	7%
Brussels	3%	7%
Wallonia	3.3%	5.5%

Who counts as a partner differs by region. In Flanders and Brussels it means your spouse, your legal cohabitant and a de facto cohabitant you have lived with for at least one year on the day of the gift. In Wallonia it means spouses and legal cohabitants. For more on the rates, read how much is gift tax in Belgium.

Example 1: giving savings away or leaving them as inheritance

A mother without a partner has €300,000 in savings and one child. If she leaves everything as inheritance, the child pays the following inheritance tax on that movable share.

Bracket	Rate	Inheritance tax
€0 to €50,000	3%	€1,500
€50,000 to €250,000	9%	€18,000
€250,000 to €300,000	27%	€13,500
Total		€33,000

If she first gives €100,000 through a registered bank gift, the child pays 3% gift tax, which is €3,000. At death, €200,000 remains: €1,500 on the first €50,000 and 9% on the next €150,000, which is €13,500. That makes €15,000 in inheritance tax. In total the child pays €18,000 instead of €33,000.

The saving comes from the highest brackets: the gift takes money out of the 27% bracket and taxes it at 3%. The mother must of course be able to do without the money, because a gift is final.

Strategy 2: gifting property in stages

A gift of a house or land always goes through a notary and is taxed progressively. All three regions use the same brackets: 3% up to €150,000, 9% up to €250,000, 18% up to €450,000 and 27% above that for gifts in the direct line and between partners. For other people the rates are 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%. In Wallonia, de facto cohabitants do not get the partner rate.

Because the rate rises with the amount, giving in parts can pay off. Flanders has a brake on this, the progressivity reservation (progressievoorbehoud). If a new property gift between the same donor and the same recipient follows within less than three years, the first gift is added to the second. The rate on the second gift then starts where the first one ended.

Example 2: €300,000 of property in one or two gifts (Flanders)

Scenario	Calculation	Gift tax
In one gift	3% on €150,000 (€4,500) + 9% on €100,000 (€9,000) + 18% on €50,000 (€9,000)	€22,500
Two gifts of €150,000, less than three years apart	€4,500 + 9% on €100,000 (€9,000) + 18% on €50,000 (€9,000)	€22,500
Two gifts of €150,000, at least three years apart	€4,500 + €4,500	€9,000

This is the Flemish rule. If you give from Brussels or Wallonia, ask your notary how successive gifts are treated there. Giving away a house also means really letting it go. So first read about the disadvantages of gifting property.

Strategy 3: unregistered gifts and the five-year rule

A hand gift or bank gift does not have to be registered. If you do not register it, no gift tax is due. But if the donor dies within five years, the gift must still be included in the estate declaration and the recipient pays inheritance tax on the amount.

This five-year period applies in Flanders to gifts made from 1 January 2025, in Brussels from 1 January 2026 and in Wallonia from 1 January 2022. For older unregistered gifts the period remains three years. In example 1, an unregistered bank gift of €100,000 would count again if the mother died within that period, and the child would again pay €33,000. Registering costs €3,000 in that example, but gives certainty.

Strategy 4: spreading across more heirs

Inheritance tax is calculated per heir, so each heir starts again in the lowest bracket. Leaving part of your assets to grandchildren in a will spreads them across more people. Grandchildren are relatives in the direct line and pay the same rate as children.

Example 3: grandchildren in the will

Take the mother with €300,000 in savings and one child again, without a gift. If her will leaves €50,000 to each of her two grandchildren, the child inherits €200,000 and pays €15,000. Each grandchild pays 3% on €50,000, which is €1,500. Together that is €18,000 instead of €33,000.

A will must stay within inheritance law, though. According to notaris.be (in Dutch), children are together entitled to half of the estate, however many there are. The other half is the disposable portion, which you can leave or give to whoever you like. The surviving spouse also has a reserved share, in usufruct.

Strategy 5: separate movable and immovable scales in Flanders

In Flanders, children, grandchildren and partners are taxed separately on the movable and the immovable part of their inheritance. Each part runs through its own brackets: 3% up to €50,000, 9% up to €250,000 and 27% above that. The example from vlaanderen.be: someone who inherits €150,000 in property and €50,000 in movable assets from their mother pays €10,500 plus €1,500, which is €12,000. Without the split it would be €15,000.

For planning, this means you need to look per category at which part falls into the higher brackets. Brussels and Wallonia do not have this split. There, one scale applies to the whole net share, after an allowance for direct-line heirs and partners that is taken off the lowest brackets first: €15,000 in Brussels, and €12,500 in Wallonia with a further €12,500 if the net share does not exceed €125,000.

Strategy 6: the family home and the partner

In Flanders, the surviving partner pays no inheritance tax on their share of the family home. This applies to married couples, legal cohabitants and de facto cohabitants who lived together for at least three years, as long as they are not related in the direct line. A second home does not qualify. In addition, for deaths from 1 January 2026, the first €75,000 of the partner's net movable share is exempt. Anything above that is taxed at 9% and possibly 27%.

In Brussels, the spouse and the legal cohabitant are fully exempt on their share of the family home. In Wallonia this exemption applies to the spouse and the legal cohabitant if the home was the main residence of the deceased for at least five years. In Wallonia, de facto cohabitants get neither the partner rate nor the home exemption, and in Brussels they do not get the partner rate. For a fuller comparison, read inheritance tax for a spouse vs a child.

Strategy 7: making a will

Without a will, the law decides who inherits. According to notaris.be, de facto cohabitants do not inherit from each other unless there is a will in their favour. In Flanders, a de facto cohabiting partner who lived with the deceased for at least one year does pay the same rate as a spouse, but without a will that partner does not inherit.

A will is also needed for the singlevermindering, the Flemish single-person reduction that has replaced the vriendenerfenis (friends' inheritance) since 1 January 2026. Someone who dies without a partner and without children or grandchildren can name one or more people in their will. At most €100,000 in total, for all named people together, can fall under this reduction. Per beneficiary, that part is taxed at 3% up to €50,000 and 9% from €50,000 to €100,000. For wills made from 1 January 2026, the vriendenerfenis no longer has any tax effect.

Example 4: €100,000 to a friend

Situation	Calculation	Inheritance tax
Without singlevermindering	25% on €35,000 (€8,750) + 45% on €40,000 (€18,000) + 55% on €25,000 (€13,750)	€40,500
With singlevermindering on €100,000	3% on €50,000 (€1,500) + 9% on €50,000 (€4,500)	€6,000

In this example the friend is the only heir from outside the family. The ordinary rate for other people is calculated on what those heirs receive together.

Points to watch

A gift to a child is in principle treated as an advance on their share of the inheritance. At death it is taken into account when the estate is divided, so the child who received a gift inherits less than their brothers or sisters. You can also make a gift expressly on top of the child's share, but it is then limited to the disposable portion. Always have a notary record these choices in the deed.

If the heirs sell the house

Inheritance tax on a house is calculated on its market value. A realistic value therefore matters, both for the estate declaration and for a later sale. A free valuation tells you where you stand. For the tax side, also read inheriting a property in Belgium.