The income taken into account is the net taxable amount, calculated from the personal income tax returns. The breakdown of the figures between the three Regions shows that Flanders has the highest average income per capita, which is 7% higher than the national average. The inhabitants of the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region have incomes respectively 6 and 22% below average.

As for the provinces, Brabant is in the first place. In the north, residents have an average income of 21,462 euros, and in the south of 21,035. Other Flemish provinces follow while Namur is the second Walloon province with 17,893 euros. The Brussels-Capital Region closes in the last place.

As for the municipalities, those of Sint-Martens-Latem, Keerbergen, and Oud-Heverlee are the top three, with the average revenues ranging from 26,590 to 30,748 euros. Lasne is the only Walloon entity to be in the top 10, in the fourth position with 26,395 euros. The two municipalities with the lowest average income are in Brussels: Saint-Josse-ten-Noodde (9,297 euros) and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean (10,406 euros).

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Digital payments will, however, still be perfectly possible on those days via bank card or smartphone.

Febelfin advises everyone to plan their money transfers ahead of time in order to avoid unpleasant surprises or delays.

“If you make a digital transfer (“virement par voie numérique”), your beneficiary’s bank will normally receive this transfer one business day after your own bank has processed it. Due to the extended weekend, however, such a payment may well be postponed. From Friday, April 19 until Monday, April 22 no such payments will be processed,” said Febelfin.

In the case of instant money transfers (“virements instantanés”), however, payments will still be processed instantaneously. (Such money transfers are, in fact, invariably done immediately, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, regardless of whether it is a weekend or a public holiday).

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Until Thursday, merchants may still request an additional amount to that of the purchase in case of electronic payment. Its ceiling was however limited to the costs generated by the transaction. Shop owners were not allowed to make a profit.

Specifically, the law that applies as of Thursday prohibits merchants to ask for additional fees to customers who wish to pay by credit card, with their smartphone, by transfer or even by direct debit.

Shop owners may refuse the electronic payment below the amount of 5 euros, in which case, the customer must be clearly informed in advance.

The usual sign of, « 20 cents of supplement for payments lower than 5 euros, » could thus become, « no card payment below 5 euros ».

Will customers without cash be forced to spend more than 5 euros? Thursday will provide the answer.

The post As of Thursday shops won’t be able to charge a supplement for use of card appeared first on Brussels Express.

Mercer’s list compiles how expensive it is for expats to live in the top 200 cities. Taking into account things like renting and buying real estate, transport costs, the price of food and leisure activities.

Eurozone cities like Brussels are higher up this year’s list than last year, as in 2017, Belgian supermarkets cost on average far more than it’s neighbouring countries: 13.4% more than in Germany, 12.9% more than the Netherlands and 9.1% more than in France. However, this change perhaps is attributed to the relatively high value of the euro compared to other major world currencies. US cities, on the other hand, became relatively less expensive due to the fall in the value of the US dollar.

The world’s most expensive cities are Hong Kong, followed by Tokyo and Zurich – and the cost of living in London and Paris still far outweighed the European capital.

The post Brussels now more expensive for expats appeared first on Brussels Express.

A service provided by the Federal Public Service Finance is available in the City of Brussels. Head on down with your ID card to the Palais du Midi from May 22 to June 28, in May and June at the FPS Finance Tower. Help is provided by an agent to fill in your tax return.

A new scheme was launched where a large number of pensioners, the unemployed or people on sickness or disability benefits will no longer receive tax returns but have a simplified declaration.

That declaration contains information which the administration already has on you and is used to calculate the taxes. If you agree with the proposal, you don’t need to fill any document; just wait and you will receive the amount or be charged.

Good to know:

• Tax-on-web allows to fill in the form online and offers many advantages such as direct aid for the hand-written part and an estimated amount of your taxes. If you wish to make changes, then you should write to your tax service or make changes via Tax-on-web.

The post Do you need help to complete your tax return? appeared first on Brussels Express.

Buying online has been continuously increasing over the past years throughout the World, and Belgium is no exception. According to recent statistics issued by The House of Marketing and SafeShops.com, more than 20,000 Belgian shops were  active on Internet last year, which represents a EUR 5,8 billion turnover (+17% compared to the 2016 figures!).

It is not really surprising. Most of the people compare prices and products online when it comes to purchase a new computer or a mobile phone. But instead of rushing to the city centre after they’ve  made their decisions, it is now very common to directly make the whole process online. And according to surveys, 60% of the Belgian population has already purchased goods online.

“We can be proud of those figures. They reflect the trust of the Belgian consumers, including in the small stakeholders”, Greet Dekocker, executive director of Safshops.be, said.

Who are the winners of such a trend? Thinking about e-shopping directly refers to multinational companies, such as Amazon or the most famous clothing brands. 4% of the stakeholders indeed represent 89% of the e-shopping market share, which means there are clear imbalances. But the ‘small stores’ have increased their online turnover by 48% last year, whereas the average increase represents 15%. And this trend should probably keep on going over the upcoming years.

Internet has not supplanté “traditional shopping”. Although there has been an obvious growth of e-shopping recently, the physical shops are definitely not dead. According to another report issued by Test Achats, more than 70% of the people still purchase goods in traditional stores. Online acquisitions would represent about 20% of the total customer base.

And if you have a walk in Rue Neuve on Saturday afternoon, there is no way e-shopping will take over the physical shops.

Although Internet is definitely a very good plan to compare goods, it is still preferable to have a real look at what you aim to get before buying an item.

The post Belgian e-shopping: 20,000 online shops and counting appeared first on Brussels Express.

In 2016, 24,381 people moved to Brussels from either Wallonia or Flanders, and 39,124 inhabitants left Brussels to live further out in the city’s periphery, or other regions. Economic insecurity and high accommodation costs are considered the main reasons for the departures and it has city authorities worried about a possible suburbanisation of the city.

The Brussels authorities have been battling with migration of the middle-class from the city for a number of years, as the middle-class account for 44% of the departures from the city. Now with the addition of the mass migration of working-class people, this represents a problem for the city’s coffers.

The middle-class is an important tax contributor to the city, and so the authorities have been trying to battle this suburbanisation taking place throughout the past few years. This additional statistics of the high departures of working-class should alert the authorities to poorer groups leaving the city as well, says Sarah De Laet, geographer and author of the study at the ULB university.

These departures have largely been relocated in the outer areas of Brussels, especially to the north of the city and former industrial areas such as the Dendre, Haine and Sambre regions. Some have even moved to lower priced neighbourhoods on the fringes of Antwerp or even to Charleroi.

But despite this exodus, the city’s population is actually growing. Therefore, the growth of the population in Brussels is likely due to international migrants to the city; with 55.8% of the city’s residents being foreign-born.

“The growth of Brussels population that has been observed in recent years is mainly due to international immigration as well as to births from a population on average younger than in the rest of the country« , says De Laet.

But this younger population in comparison to other Belgian cities means that less tax can be collected as they are less likely established in the job market.

The post The working classes are leaving Brussels appeared first on Brussels Express.

The end of overcharges for card payments is something millions of Belgian residents have been waiting for years as some shops usually charge 30, 50 or 70 cents when paying by credit card.

“We would like to foster electronic payments. They provide higher safety, as they reduce the circulation of cash. Electronic payments also ease the fight against fiscal fraud”, Kris Peeters, the Federal Minister for Economy, stated in a press release, after the Council of ministers approved the bill he proposed last week.

Although many may be quite happy about it,  Belgian authorities were actually late to enforce this law. It was an EU directive, which entered into force at the end of 2015, stipulating that the EU Member States should end overcharges for card payments as of 13 January 2018, except for American Express, Diners Club, and professional cards.

That means the Belgian authorities should have transposed this directive at the latest a month ago, and payers should not have been overcharged for all the card payments from January.

Therefore, Belgium can be praised for complying with the EU Law (even if the bill should be applicable only next summer), but the credit lies with the European Union.

The Council of ministers explicitly mentioned the need for transposition of the EU directive in a public working document on 9 February. And the Belgian authorities agreed on such a reform at the Council of the EU, before it was decided.

The only concern is about the credit Kris Peeters took for the bill, as Belgium had no choice in applying these provisions to Belgium legal order; the Belgian State could be fined before the Court of Justice of the European Union if it doesn’t comply with this directive.

This game of politics has not only taken place in Belgium. Theresa May, the British Prime minister, took such credit on the  January 13, the day when the directive should have applied to all EU Member states.

This point then raises the question with regard to the EU. National political leaders often criticises the EU when it “imposes” legislation such as hosting refugees or allowing all the EU citizens to work under the workers directive, but when it comes to positive and popular measures, such as the end of roaming or overbilling for card payments, many  “forget” to give credit where the credit is due.

The post End of credit and debit card fees in Belgium appeared first on Brussels Express.