A gift of moveable property (une donation mobilière) (often money) can be a way of giving a little financial help to someone close to you or simply a way of making them happy. See article : Rhyming estate planning with confinement
From a tax point of view, such a gift does not need to be registered, nor does it require the services of a notary. It is therefore neither subject to gift tax nor to inheritance tax provided the donor does not die within three years after the date of the gift.
If the donor does in fact die within three years of making the gift, the value of the gift will be notionally included in the estate upon the donor’s death, in order to determine the amount of inheritance tax due from his or her heirs.
However, in Belgium, inheritance tax is much higher than gift tax and as the former is progressive, the heirs may find themselves obliged to pay substantial tax on an amount from which they did not benefit (unless the donee is also a legal heir of the deceased’s estate).
Following a decision of the Constitutional Court, the Walloon and Brussels-Capital Regions have now followed the reform initiated by the Flemish Region and changed their inheritance legislation to remove the negative effect of this tax treatment of the deceased’s legal heirs.
The effect is that recipients will now have to pay any inheritance tax that falls due on the value of a gift (donation) given by a donor, who dies after 1 March 2021, themselves.
If you wish to make a gift (donation), you should therefore take into account whether or not (in the event of decease within three years) it would be more beneficial to pay gift tax on the value of the moveable property, depending on the nature of your estate.
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