VAT on accommodation in Belgium: the 12% rate since 2026 explained for your B&B

Since 1 March 2026, Belgium applies 12% VAT on accommodation instead of 6%. What changes for your B&B, what about breakfast and add-on services, when do you qualify for the small-business exemption, and how do you keep your invoicing correct? A practical explanation.

Since 1 March 2026, the VAT rate on accommodation in Belgium has changed from 6% to 12%. If you run a B&B, guest room or holiday home, that's no detail: it affects your prices, your invoices and what you net per overnight stay. Yet there's still plenty of confusion around it. This guide lays out the practice — not legal advice, but a clear starting point for the conversation with your accountant.

What exactly changed?

Until the end of February 2026, an overnight stay fell under the reduced 6% rate. Since 1 March 2026, 12% VAT applies to the accommodation service itself — the bare overnight stay in your B&B or guest room. The standard 21% rate still applies to things that are clearly separate from it.

Important: this is about the VAT you remit to the tax authority, not the municipal tourist tax. Those are two different levies that exist side by side. How to handle that tourist tax administratively is covered in Handling tourist tax and accommodation levies.

Does this apply to you?

Not every B&B operator has to charge VAT. Belgium has a small-business exemption scheme: if your annual turnover stays below the threshold (€25,000), you can choose not to charge VAT and not to remit any. Many small guest houses with a few rooms fall under it.

What does that mean in practice?

Under the exemption? Then nothing changes for your price: you charge no VAT and the rate change doesn't affect you directly. You also can't deduct VAT on your purchases.
VAT-liable? Then since 1 March 2026 you charge 12% VAT on the stay instead of 6%, and you remit that difference.

Whether the exemption is attractive for you depends on your turnover, your investments and your customer mix. That's a question best put to your accountant.

And breakfast and the extras?

This is where the nuance comes in. A B&B rarely sells just "a bed". Often there's breakfast included, sometimes parking, a wellness moment or a bottle of cava in the room.

Breakfast and services closely tied to the stay generally follow the accommodation rate. The practice around add-on services has been shifting since the rate change — get specific advice on this.
Standalone supplies (for example drinks from an honesty bar, or a meal that isn't part of the stay) may fall under a different rate.

The common thread: split your invoice neatly per service, so each item gets the right rate. An invoice with everything lumped together makes your bookkeeping — and any audit — needlessly hard.

What do you do with your prices?

With a rate increase from 6% to 12%, you broadly have two choices:

Your selling price stays the same (VAT included). Then your net revenue per night drops, because a larger share goes to the tax authority.
You raise your selling price so you net the same. For a room at €120 per night, that quickly adds up to a few euros' difference.

Which you choose depends on your market and your occupancy. Either way, work it through deliberately — don't let it quietly nibble at your margin. If you use dynamic pricing, you can factor this into your strategy; read more in Pricing strategy and dynamic pricing for your B&B.

Keep your invoicing correct

The biggest pitfall with a rate change isn't the rate itself — it's the administration around it:

Your invoice template still showing 6%.
Bookings that straddle the date boundary (1 March 2026).
Breakfast and extras sitting on the wrong rate.
An accounting integration pushing old VAT codes to Yuki or Peppol.

That's why it pays to work with a system where you set the VAT rate per product line, and where invoices automatically carry the right rate and the right e-invoicing codes.

How BedFlow PMS solves this for you

In BedFlow PMS you set the VAT rate per service — stay, breakfast, extras — so every invoice line automatically carries the correct percentage. Your invoicing is fully built per property, with your own numbering and branding, and your invoices leave ready for your bookkeeping.

Working with a Belgian accountant or with Peppol e-invoicing? BedFlow PMS pushes your invoices with the right VAT codes through to your accounting package (such as Yuki) and supports structured e-invoicing. Read more in Peppol and e-invoicing for your B&B. That way a rate change becomes a single setting instead of a manual hunt through all your templates.

In summary

Since 1 March 2026, the VAT rate on accommodation in Belgium is 12% (was 6%).
If you fall under the small-business exemption (turnover below €25,000), it doesn't affect your price directly.
Breakfast and closely tied services generally follow the accommodation rate; split your invoice neatly.
Decide deliberately whether to adjust your price or let your margin drop.
Use a system that manages the rate per product line and pushes it correctly to your bookkeeping.

This article is general information, not tax advice. Your specific situation depends on your turnover, your activities and your municipality — align it with your accountant.

Want to keep your invoicing and VAT correct without the puzzle? Check the pricing or try BedFlow PMS free for 30 days — no credit card required.