The most expensive doorbells in Belgium?
May 2022 – If you have work done on your home, you can benefit from a reduced VAT rate provided the building is at least ten years old. However, the work must affect the residential building itself and may not involve the installation of a gate to your driveway.
The facts
A contractor carries out building work that consists more specifically of the installation of gates and video and intercom equipment. Where possible - i.e. where the house is sufficiently old - he applies 6% VAT. During an audit in 2013, the VAT authorities came across this procedure and sent the entrepreneur a corrective declaration. The classic procedure follows: the entrepreneur contests, the administration draws up a report and the entrepreneur lodges an administrative complaint which is rejected by the VAT administration.
The entrepreneur then takes the case to court. The case was dealt with by the Antwerp Court of First Instance (16 April) and then by the Antwerp Court of Appeal (11 February 2020) and the entrepreneur was not successful in either of these courts. The contractor then appealed to the Court of Cassation, which finally ruled against him.
Portals
As a reminder, the reduced rate can only be applied when a private individual has work carried out in his private home. Exceptionally, the reduced rate also applies to work carried out in buildings that are also used for business purposes. In this case, only the private part can benefit from it unless the professional part is very limited.
The Antwerp Court of Appeal considers that the installation of gates is not part of the work subject to the reduced rate of 6%. The work must be carried out in an outbuilding of the dwelling or have the purpose of improving the dwelling. The work must be of immediate use for the function of the private dwelling, regardless of whether the gate is attached to the façade of the building or to a pillar.
Gates used to separate the property from the public highway must be considered as a fence. However, fencing work (delimiting the perimeter of your property, a gate in front of the house, etc.) is excluded from the reduced rate.
Doorbell
The Court also ruled on video and intercom systems installed on gates. In this respect, the Court of Appeal emphasises that the attachment to the residential building is relevant in this case. If the video and intercom equipment is attached to the residential building, the conditions for the application of the 6% rate are fulfilled and the reduced rate can be applied for the installation of the reduced rate.
In the opposite case - the video intercom is fixed to the gate twenty metres from the entrance door - the reduced rate cannot be applied.
Finally, the Court considers the following case: the installation is partly attached to the dwelling building and partly to elements outside the dwelling itself. For example, your gate is equipped with a door phone, but the camera is attached to the building. Unsurprisingly, the Court of Appeal concludes that the reduced rate of 6% can be applied to the part of the work that relates to the dwelling itself, while the other part should be subject to the 21% rate.
A word of warning: if it is impossible to distinguish between the work..., the higher rate should be applied.
After almost ten years of proceedings, the contractor was finally unsuccessful. In addition to the court and legal fees, he has to pay 15% VAT on the gates and bells he installed before 2013. In the end, these bells turned out to be very expensive...
