From April: higher minimum wage, lower VAT rate, flight tax and more expensive bus tickets

As of Friday 1 April the minimum wage is going up, the VAT rate for gas, solar panels, heat pumps and solar boilers will drop, the flight tax will enter into force and a single bus ride with De Lijn will become more expensive. ​

From April, a VAT rate of 6 percent will apply to the purchase and installation of solar panels, heat pumps and solar water heaters, including for new and young homes. The reduced VAT rate already exists for homes older than 10 years, but will be extended until the end of December 2023 to homes younger than 10 years, including newly built homes and homes that are rebuilt after demolition.

The VAT rate for gas will also be temporarily reduced to 6%. The reduction may not be visible on advance bills yet, but will be settled later. The federal government had already introduced a VAT reduction on electricity from 1 March. The reduction applies to both gas and electricity until at least 30 September 2022. The VAT reduction on electricity will not be visible on energy bills until April. ​

From April, the minimum wage will be 1,806.16 euros gross per month. This is the result of the social agreement that unions and employers concluded in June last year. Initially it was announced that the minimum wage would rise to 1,702 euros per month. But since then it has been indexed several times, so that in practice it has increased to 1,806.16 ​
​euros.

The "tax on boarding a plane", better known as the flight tax, is applicable from 1 April. For each passenger departing from Belgian soil in an "aircraft" (passenger plane, private plane, helicopter, etc.), the airline company will have to pay a tax. The tax amounts to 10 euros per passenger (from 2 years of age) for short-haul flights. These are flights to destinations no further than 500 kilometres (measured from Brussels Airport). For medium-haul flights the tax is 2 euro per passenger and 4 euros for long-haul flights. ​ ​

The cheapest one-way ticket with De Lijn will become 25% more expensive. The m-ticket goes from 2 to 2.5 euros. The government is making the fare the same for the different types of tickets. The m-ticket in De Lijn's app will therefore have the same price as the SMS ticket and the traditional ticket.

PHOTO © BELGA