Belgium - VAT increase | Mews implementation

Hello ​@PHman88 

Well I think Mews will handle it as they are planning to do it for the Netherlands. They also have a VAT increase scheduled (see articles here after)

VAT update - Netherlands 2026 | Community

How to prepare for the VAT rate change in the Netherlands starting 1 January 2026

Maybe ​@coline.poussiere could confirm that, right?

Hopefuly we will get a confirmation soon

See ya

Stephane

Hi ​@PHman88,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention via the community! It is like Stephane mentioned, Mews will usually take care of the migration process. It might be that some actions are required from the side of hoteliers, if necessary this will of course be communicated to you. 

I've flagged Belgium to our product team overseeing the VAT changes, and they will investigate as of when it's taking effect. I was hoping to find an official government announcement for the changes as well, but so far only a few news articles showed up for me. 

Rest assured, the product team will be investigating this thoroughly.

Thanks again, and we'll keep you posted!

Merel

As the date is now set to be 01/03/26 for this VAT change, will we receive instructions from MEWS in preparation of it?

Only the room and breakfast will be impacted, from 6% to 12%

The government has set a transition period between 01/03/26 and 30/06/26 for reservations made before 28/02/26.  Not sure if that is a feasable ficture at your end. 

I have read the information available that was published for the VAT change in the Netherlands on 01/01/26, will this be something similar?

Thanks already.  I know it’s really short notice that they have finalised this.

Katia

Can someone please point out for me how to update the city tax? 

For our destination it is € 3,75.- exclusive of VAT. 
Until 28/02 the city tax is € 3,98.- (inclusive of 6% VAT)
From 01/03 the city tax is € 4,20.- (inclusive of 12% VAT)

I tried to update the city tax product (via ‘services’):

but when making a new reservation, it is still the old city tax that is being loaded in (€ 3,98.- as opposed to € 4,20.-)

Thank you in advance for the help!

Hi there, 

I notice the city tax for stay-overs on 28.02.2026 is without the VAT.
Also new reservations (from 01.03.2026) get the city tax without the VAT.

Please let me know what to do (?)

Also, kindly share Mews’ interpretation on the VAT-percentage for city tax during the transitional period (reservations made before 01.03.2026 with invoice date 30.06.2026 latest): 
→ city tax continues to be subject to 6%; or
→ city tax is immediately subject to 12%

As to provide as much details as possible: our city tax is hardcoded.

“€3,75 + VAT”; but it just seems that (either old or new) VAT is not coming along currently.

 

Hello everyone, 

I’m Josue - one of the Community Ambassadors - and I’m happy to help clarify your questions regarding the VAT change in Belgium. 

Firstly, ​@Katia T - we did publish a guide with the details on this change which you can view here: How to prepare for the VAT change in Belgium starting 1 March 2026. I hope this helps :) 

​@PHman88:

Mews follows the Belgian rules described in our help article linked above: 

• For bookings created on or before 28 February 2026, the 6% VAT can continue to apply as long as all VAT on that booking becomes due (payment or invoice) by 30 June 2026.
• From 1 July 2026, any remaining amount that becomes chargeable must use 12% VAT.

The article explicitly confirms that the same transitional rule applies to city taxes and ancillary services such as breakfast, parking, etc.

So in terms of Mews’ interpretation:

• City tax follows the same 6% → 12% transitional logic as accommodation, based on when VAT becomes due (payment/invoice date), not just on stay dates.

From your first screenshot, I can see you’ve created/updated City Tax products to €4,20 with 12% VAT, but in your City tax settings the system is still using the hard‑coded city tax.

The dropdown “3.75 € + VAT per adult per night” is a hard‑coded city tax for your municipality. That means:

• The amount and VAT are controlled by Mews, not by the products you’ve created under Settings > Services > City tax.
• Updating the “City Tax Hotel / City Tax B&B / Correction City Tax” products to €4,20 with 12% VAT will not change what’s loaded automatically on new reservations as long as the service is still pointing to the hard‑coded option.

Because of the Belgian VAT change, the hard‑coded city tax should now effectively equal €4,20 (3,75 + 12% VAT), but from your description it’s currently posting only €3,75 without VAT on:

• stays on 28/02/2026, and
• new reservations from 01/03/2026.

That behaviour is not expected and matches an issue we’re already investigating internally where 12% VAT is not being added correctly on hard‑coded Belgian city tax after 1 March 2026 and, in some cases, the tax is posted without VAT at all.

Because your city tax is hard‑coded, this is not something you can fully fix from configuration alone – it needs to be checked by the Support & Product teams.

To investigate properly we’ll need access to your specific configuration and some bill examples, which I can’t do directly from Community.

Please reach out to Mews Support via the Mews Digital Assistant from your environment and ask to open a ticket about this issue so we can do a proper investigation. 

Thank you for raising this and we look forward to assisting you further. 

~ Best regards, 

dear Josue,

thank you for that elaborate information!

I am happy to report that on March 2nd the hard-coded city tax issue was addressed and resolved.