Toolbox (2024)

New or used, you owe vehicle registration tax each time a passenger car or a minivan changes owners and the vehicle gets a new number plate. Each region calculates this registration tax differently: Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels all have their own systems in place.

Quite some time ago already, Flanders transitioned to a system that looks at the CO2 emissions, the fuel type, the emission standard and the vehicle’s age. In contrast to the old system (and to how it’s still done in Wallonia and Brussels), engine power and engine capacity no longer enter into the equation. Vehicle registration tax is calculated using a complex formula and varies between €45.35 and €11,336.47.

Emission-free cars (electric or hydrogen-powered) and plug-in hybrids with CO2 emissions lower than 50g/km do not pay vehicle registration tax in Flanders.

Wallonia and Brussels still use a table to determine the vehicle registration tax based on a vehicle’s cylinder capacity, expressed in fiscal HP, combined with the engine power in kilowatt (kW). If you’re registering a vehicle with CO2 emissions higher than 145g/km in Wallonia, you also need to pay a one-off environmental penalty between €100 to €2,500, unless the vehicle is powered by CNG.

The system is different for leasing companies. Whether they are based in Flanders, Brussels or Wallonia, the cars they register are always taxed according to the system in use in Brussels and Wallonia and without the environmental penalty for Wallonia.

Table: vehicle registration tax in Wallonia, Brussels and for leasing companies

*The highest value determines the rate

Table: Environmental penalty Wallonia for cars with CO2 emissions higher than 145g/km

In all regions, light commercial vehicles (vans, pick-up trucks, …) are not subject to vehicle registration tax and their vehicle tax is based on the vehicle’s maximum permissible mass. Maximum rates are much lower than those for passenger cars.