On 24 March 2018, the Belgian federal government issued a press release following the interim audit of the 2018 budget, announcing optional VAT on (qualifying) real estate leases as of 1 October 2018.

No official text is available yet.

A measure to this effect was already announced last year in the framework of the Summer Agreement which reformed the Belgian tax system. In October, the measure was scratched due to its budgetary consequences.