Electric car tax deduction in Belgium in 2026

What the reform changed for business cars

The law that greened Belgian car taxation split the national fleet in three. What matters is not the year of your tax return but the date on which you ordered the car, signed the lease or received the purchase invoice.

Three regimes therefore run side by side in 2026, and two cars parked next to each other can be deducted at very different rates for years.

• Car acquired before 1 July 2023: the old regime still applies. A fully electric car is deductible at 100 %, a combustion car follows the classic CO2 formula.
• Petrol, diesel or plug-in hybrid acquired from 1 July 2023: transitional regime, with a deduction ceiling that falls every year until it disappears.
• Zero-emission car acquired recently: the deduction depends on the year of acquisition, 100 % up to and including 2026 and then lower for each following vintage.

Electric car tax deduction: the rates year by year

A fully electric car bought or leased in 2026 is still deductible at 100 %. It is the last vintage at that level: from 2027 the rate drops for every newly acquired vehicle.

The reassuring part is that the rate is locked in at acquisition. An electric car ordered in 2026 will still be deductible at 100 % in 2031, while cars bought that year will be capped at 67.5 %.

Petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrids: the ceiling that fades away

For a petrol, diesel or plug-in hybrid car acquired since 1 July 2023, you first work out the rate with the usual CO2 formula, then apply a ceiling that falls year after year.

In practice, a combustion car bought in 2026 will never deduct more than half of its running costs, and cars acquired from 2028 will not be deductible at all.

• The base formula is still 120 % minus 0.5 times the fuel coefficient times the number of grams of CO2 per kilometre, with a coefficient of 1 for diesel and 0.95 for petrol.
• On a plug-in hybrid, fossil fuel costs are limited to 50 % deduction, while the electricity consumed follows the rate of the vehicle.
• Plug-in hybrids acquired since 2025 follow their own transitional schedule: ask your accountant which ceiling matches your acquisition date.

A worked example: what the 100 % deduction really brings

Sarah is a freelance consultant in Namur. In March 2026 she signs the lease on an electric car invoiced at 42,000 €. Business journeys account for 80 % of her mileage, a share she keeps up to date in a trip log.

Here is her yearly budget, line by line. You first split business from private use, then apply the deduction rate of the vehicle, here 100 %.

VAT runs on its own track alongside: on the items that carry it, such as the lease payment and the servicing, Sarah never recovers more than half. Insurance and road tax carry none.

Which costs fall under the deduction rate

The rate does not only hit depreciation or the lease invoice: it applies to almost everything the car costs during the year. A few items escape it, and they are worth isolating as you record them.

If you are a sole trader, one calculation comes first: only the share matching the business use of the car goes into your professional expenses. The deduction rate then applies to that share alone.

• Subject to the limit: depreciation or lease payments, insurance, road tax, servicing, tyres, roadside assistance and cleaning.
• Also subject to the limit: charging electricity, at home as well as at a public charging point.
• Outside the limit: financing interest, which stays fully deductible.
• Outside the limit too: the fixed charging station, which is a separate investment rather than a car expense.

VAT on an electric car: 50 % at most

Income tax deduction and VAT deduction are two different calculations, and that is where many freelancers get caught out. Going electric changes nothing for VAT: recovery stays capped at 50 %, even when the car is used only for work.

Three methods are available to determine your business use. You pick the one that suits you, but you keep the same logic from one year to the next.

Charging stations: what is deductible and at what rate

A charging station installed at your business premises or at the director's home is an investment, not a car expense. It is depreciated over its useful life and therefore escapes the limit that hits running costs.

The electricity it delivers is a car expense: it follows the rate of the vehicle being charged. A separate meter or a smart charger that splits household consumption from car consumption will save you long arguments during an audit.

• Fixed charging station at business premises: depreciation deductible like any professional investment.
• Charging station at the director's home paid by the company: same treatment, with a written agreement covering its use.
• Public charging: keep the receipts and the statements from your charging card, they are treated as fuel costs.
• The increased deduction for publicly accessible charging stations and the tax reduction for home charging points both ended on 31 August 2024. Ask your accountant whether a more recent measure covers your installation.

Benefit in kind for directors and employees

As soon as the car is available for private journeys, a benefit in kind is taxed in the hands of whoever uses it. It is based on the catalogue value, multiplied by 6/7 and by a coefficient linked to CO2 emissions.

An electric car emits nothing, so it gets the floor coefficient of 4 %, against a much higher figure for a combustion car. Since the reference emission is revised downwards every year, the gap keeps widening.

• Catalogue value: list price of the new car including options and VAT, before discount, reduced by 6 % per year of age with a floor at 70 % of the original value.
• A minimum benefit amount, indexed every year, applies when the calculation gives a lower result.
• The company adds back 17 % of the benefit as a disallowed expense, or 40 % if it covers the fuel or the charging electricity.
• The employer CO2 solidarity contribution remains due, including for an electric car, with a minimum amount that rises every year.

Tracking it all in your accounts

A car means a dozen invoices a year to allocate properly: lease, insurance, servicing, charging, taxes. The deduction rate is not something you guess at year end, it is decided as you record each document.

In Novadesko you file those expenses under a cost account dedicated to the vehicle, with the recoverable VAT share on the right side and the receipt attached to every entry. Your accountant finds a complete file at filing time, without having to chase you three times.

• Purchase invoices recorded with the recoverable VAT share and the vehicle expense account.
• Charging receipt photographed from your phone and attached to the expense.
• Cash flow view showing what the car really costs each month.
• Export to your accounting firm, with the detail per account.

Frequently asked questions