You buy a €400 monitor. Do you capitalise it and depreciate it over three years, or book it straight to expense?
Belgian practice answers €250 more often than anything else. That figure is not in the accounting law. It came out of VAT law, and VAT law replaced it with €1,000 on 1 January 2014.
This article is informational, not legal or tax advice.
Accounting law sets no threshold
The royal decree of 29 April 2019 executing the Companies and Associations Code, and the 2001 decree before it, define a fixed asset by its purpose. An asset is capitalised because it is intended to serve the activity durably, meaning beyond one financial year. No minimum value appears anywhere in the accounting legislation.
Article 3:20 is the exception, and it is narrower than a threshold. Small equipment and raw or auxiliary materials that are constantly renewed, and whose acquisition value is negligible against your balance sheet total, may sit on the assets side at a fixed amount, with the cost of renewing them going to operating expenses. The second condition is that quantity, value and composition must not change appreciably from one year to the next. This is a carrying method for a stationery cupboard that is continually restocked. It does not cover a €900 laptop.
Where €250 came from
Royal decree no. 3 of 10 December 1969, article 6, defines a capital good as tangible property, certain rights in rem, and services intended to be used "op een duurzame wijze" as work instruments or means of operation. It then carves out packaging, small equipment, small tooling and office supplies, "wanneer die goederen voldoen aan de door de minister van Financiën gestelde criteria".
Ministerial decree no. 1 of 2 September 1980 supplies that criterion as a price per usual commercial unit. Eight chairs at €180 on one invoice are eight items of €180, not one purchase of €1,440. The 2001 euro conversion fixed the figure at 250 EUR, and that is the number that entered Belgian practice.
It has been €1,000 since 2014
The ministerial decree of 4 December 2013, at page 97461 of the Belgisch Staatsblad of 9 December 2013, is two articles long:
Artikel 1. In artikel 1, 1°, van het ministerieel besluit nr. 1 van 2 september 1980 [...] worden de woorden ″250 EUR″ vervangen door de woorden ″1.000 euro″.
Art. 2. Dit besluit treedt in werking op 1 januari 2014.
Administrative decision no. E.T.125.162 of 16 January 2014 confirmed it applies to capital goods supplied from that date.
What crossing the VAT threshold triggers
Article 9 of royal decree no. 3 puts capital goods under a revision period: five years, fifteen for immovable capital goods, twenty-five for buildings let under article 44, §3, 2°, d) of the VAT Code. While that window is open, a shift in the balance between your taxed and exempt activity, or a disposal, means recalculating the input VAT you deducted and repaying part of it. Below the threshold there is nothing to revise, because the purchase was never a capital good. The ordinary deduction rules still apply, including any adjustment for private use.
Reporting differs too. Belgian VAT returns split incoming transactions three ways: grid 81 for goods for resale and raw and auxiliary materials, grid 82 for services and miscellaneous goods, grid 83 for capital goods. A purchase under €1,000 goes to 81 or 82 depending on what it is. Over €1,000 it goes to 83.
What expensing costs
The investment deduction under article 75 of the Income Tax Code applies only to assets depreciated over at least three taxable periods, so anything you expense on day one is out of scope. Expensing also reduces your balance sheet total, which is one of the three size criteria deciding whether you file abbreviated or micro accounts.
Keeping €250 as your accounting figure
A €250 accounting threshold against a €1,000 VAT threshold creates a band of purchases that are assets on your balance sheet and ordinary costs for VAT. A €600 desk is depreciated over ten years in the accounts and reported in grid 82, alongside your electricity bill. That follows both sets of rules correctly, but your investment account will not reconcile against grid 83. An accounting threshold of €1,000 makes the two coincide.
The VAT figure governs VAT classification only. It does not license immediate expensing for corporate tax, where article 61 of the Income Tax Code requires depreciation of assets whose usefulness is limited in time, and where the administration's acceptance of immediate expensing for small equipment rests on practice rather than on a published figure. Confirm the corporate tax side with your accountant before raising your threshold.
Changing a valuation rule
Article 3:8 of the 2019 decree requires valuation rules, and the way you apply them, to stay identical from one financial year to the next and be applied systematically. The same article sets out when they change: among other reasons, when significant changes in your activity, in the structure of your assets, or in economic or technological circumstances mean the rules no longer produce a true and fair view. A change is mentioned and justified in the notes to the accounts, with its estimated effect on your equity, financial position and result in the first year you apply it.
Moving from €250 to €1,000 is a change of valuation rule: made once, disclosed, then kept. Two limits apply whichever figure you land on. A threshold written into your valuation rules does not override materiality. And expensing below the threshold is permitted, never required.
In Financica
Books > Assets holds the fixed-asset register: cost, in-service date, useful life, method, accumulated depreciation and book value per asset, with the Belgian schedule prefilled and editable per asset. Depreciation posts as a run you can undo, and the page flags fixed-asset balances in your ledger with no asset behind them.
Financica currently suggests €250 for Belgium, marked as an administrative practice rather than a rule. The VAT return does not yet split incoming purchases across grids 81, 82 and 83.
Sources
- Royal decree no. 3 of 10 December 1969, articles 6 and 9
- Ministerial decree of 4 December 2013, Belgisch Staatsblad of 9 December 2013, ed. 2, page 97461
- Article 3:20 of the royal decree of 29 April 2019, and article 3:8 in the published decree
- Grids 81, 82 and 83, Intervat documentation, FPS Finance