Belgian vehicle tax explained..

This post is related to  some of my earlier posts regarding your car purchase in Belgium.

Many of the expats come to a situation of buying a car in Belgium. Whether its new or used, some of you want to know the tax that you've to pay. The following details are for cars (personal use) bought in Flanders (the Dutch speaking region). There is slight difference in the tax amounts if you live in the French speaking region.
Apart from insurance (will explain in separate post) one need to pay two taxes when buying a car.
1. 'Belasting op inverkeerstelling' (BIV)
2.' Verkeersbelasting'

1. BIV is a one time tax when one first register the car and act as an introductory tax related to environmental norms.  This is calculated after considering various factors such as the engine size, engine power output, CO2 emission, ... These details can be found from the car's registration document as below,

[Source: Belastingportaal Vlanderen]

There is an approximate simulation tool available in the tax portal to calculate the BIV tax amount. The simulation can be completed by selecting the type of vehicle you want to check, type of driver and then adding some details of the car.
The picture below shows an example for calculating BIV of a personal use car first registered in 2009, having engine class (fiscale pk) 9 and engine output kW = 91. Click on the image for larger size.

The above tool is not considering the CO2 emission but the actual case includes that, and thus can have slight variations in the BIV amount.

2. 'Verkeersbelasting' is the actual yearly tax one need to pay for vehicles. In Belgium, this is calculated purely on the basis of engine capacity. The following table shows the different tax class/category (fiscale pk) and the corresponding 'verkeersbelasting' to be paid per year (as of December 2013).

 [Source: Belastingportaal Vlanderen]

Note: In Belgium, there is no BIV to paid for for light weight (lichte vracht) commercial vehicles (for example: 2 seated pick-up trucks). Such vehicles have only a flat rate of verkeersbelasing on the basis of their capacity.

Merry Christmas

Wish all dear expats a Merry Christmas...

Antwerp.. some impressions

Again, a full photo blog is coming up next. For the time being, enjoy these impressions

Antwerp central train station

Lion and my Lady

Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS)

Floor 9.5 in MAS

May be she moved out already!!

Liège... some impressions

Liège city is beautiful for it's own dark buildings and streets. Yes, some people call it dark, but I found it pretty bright and even better than many other Belgian cities.

A full photo blog coming soon..

Small city cars (used) to consider

If you are living within a city and most of your commutes are within, then look for a small but safe car as your primary car.
What fuel?
Since most of the trips will be shorter, petrol/gasoline engines will be better. Increased engine shutdowns will have adverse effect on a turbo charged diesel engine
.
List of 10 small, reliable and safe used cars (author's opinion) that you can fetch in a budget of 6 - 10 thousand euros:

1. Mazda 2 (>2008 models)
   - ENCAP 5 star; fun to drive, Mazda reliability; re-sale value
2. VW Up, Skoda Citigo, Seat Mii
   - all same in different skin; safe city car; efficient
3. VW Polo, Skoda Fabia, Seat Ibiza
   - safetly, reliable (newer engines), re-sale value)
4. Ford Fiesta hatchback
   - safe, fun to drive, plenty, re-sale value
5. Hyundai i20
6. Suzuki Swift
7. Opel Corsa
8. Fiat Grande Punto
9. Chevrolet new Aveo (!!Chevrolet is planning to stop their operation in Europe by 2015)
10. Renault Clio

Mobile networks in Belgium

This post is my opinion about the mobile networks available in Belgium.
Mainly three companies own the infrastructure of Belgium's GSM network.
1. Proximus
2. Mobistar
3. Base
All the other names you might see on your phone screen, make use of (one of) the above networks through contract. A full list of available mobile network providers and the network underneath can be found here.

On a personal note, I would suggest you to check the coverage map of any of the above mentioned networks, before you get one. Because some of them are really annoying. I have a 'carrefour mobile' sim card which uses the Base network. Call rates are pretty good in comparison but this base network is annoying at times and I am almost never reachable. Finally I had to get a secondary number (lyca) which uses a proximus network.
If you are living in a bigger city, then the above mentioned issues may not be there.
Share your experiences in the comments section.

Driving Licence in Belgium - Theory exam

This post continues the information on getting a driving licence in Belgium.

Theory examination for driving license is available only in a few centers across Belgium. That means, not all the centers listed in my previous post, conducts a theory exam with an English translator. For example, one can take the exam in English at Bree and Schaerbeek centers. The waiting period for an English exam may be up to a month, as they will wait for a minimum number of candidates to book for the exam. The questions on the computer screen will be in Dutch/French, but you are paying (50€) for an English translator who will translate the questions before your answering timer starts.
The theory examination contains 50 questions and for each questions (after translation), there is 15 sec to answer it. Personally I found the translator helpful because the time the translator does her/his duty, is a bonus for the candidate to look at the picture associated with the question.
One need to answer a minimum of 41 questions correct, in order to pass the exam. Annoying part is that, if you fail for any reason, you will have to wait again for the English test date.

Avoid paying euros to any driving school if you have some idea about traffic rules. You should pass the exam if you can go through the theory and practical question books, atleast one time.

Did I miss anything you wanted to know? 

Driving Licence in Belgium - Requirements

This post will discuss the basic requirements for non-Belgians to obtain driving license in Belgium. Especially, if you are an English speaking candidate. Many foreigners' ('expats/aliens' as they call) driving licenses from their own country is not valid in Belgium and in that case, one has to go through the complete procedure of driving license exam before they can drive in Belgium.

Citizen's of European Economic Area (EEA; EU plus Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein) with a valid license are not required to exchange their driver’s license.
Several non-EEA countries have bilateral agreement in this context and hence can simply exchange their license to obtain a Belgian license to drive around. But the person must be above 18 year old and registered to the Belgian national registry. A list of these countries can be found here (in Dutch).
Citizens from other non-EEA countries without a bilateral agreement with Belgium  (India, Columbia, Chili, Mexico, ... and all non-EEA countries not listed here) on driving licenses, should pass the theory and practical exams. However, and international license from their home country will allow them a grace period of one year to get the Belgian driving license (data not verified).
Check out your nearby exam centers here:
Flemish region
Walloon, Brussels region
 
Next post will explain more about the theory exam...

Related:
G O C A (Group of companies approved for vehicle test and licence) website (only in Dutch/French) is the official site for all the information regarding driving license as well as the yearly vehicle control.

Diesel or benzine cars in Belgium?

This is a simple analyses to help you decide on whether to buy diesel or petrol (benzine) cars in Belgium.
The road-tax for cars in Belgium is rated mainly according to the engine capacity, the lowest being 1L engined cars. Up to 2L engine, the tax varies between 120 - 300 €/year. So I wouldn't mind buying a 2L car if everything else goes well according to your criteria (However, this reasoning will be invalid once Belgium move to the CO2 emission based tax system).

But... it is the number of km's that you would drive/year that matters. Recent statistics from Belgian motor drivers organization reports that the diesel cars are not saving you much unless one drive more than 30000 km/year. This if you have to pay 1-3000 more for a used diesel compared to its benzine sibling.

Essentially the technology for diesel particulate filters are not fool proof and hence the probable extra maintenance cost must be taken into account in the above calculation. Moreover the new generation turbo charged benzine/essence/petrol motors are more and more fuel efficient.

Anyhow in Belgium, promotion of diesel cars were high till recently which was found to be less sustainable for the society. This fact brings a lot of diesel cars in the second hand market.
In general, there is a high demand for less driven diesel cars which makes the benzine versions cheaper to buy. So get an idea of how many km's you would drive and if (in a practical limit) you would not cross 20000 km/year; then go for a good benzine engine instead.

What car you need / what car you wish ??

Well.. this is purely personal!

If you have a crush with some particular model/brand; then  its easy.

Or if car is only a mean of mobility, then go for the practical one. We will list these in the next post.

What to avoid!!

In any 'tweedehands' (second hand) website that I mentioned in my first post, there can be enough frauds to fool the beginners.
Tips:
When you see a car for sale ad, with 'too good to be true', the best is to avoid such a deal.
For example, recently there were many posts showing VW Golf mk6 (2010 and later) for sale less than €5000!!!

An example quoted above is a real life sample. Such a car will cost atleast 8000€!!
These are mostly frauds looking for online scams. It's your duty to think twice or ask your colleagues or simply search in the website for similar models and get the market value.

cheers