TOB and Reynders calculator — the two Belgian ETF taxes
Belgium is unusual in taxing the transaction rather than the gain: ordinary capital gains on equity are not taxed at all, while buying and selling is. That makes the Belgian cost of owning an ETF depend on something none of the other three countries care about — how long you hold it. The same fund costs the same euros in tax whether you keep it one year or twenty, which means the annual cost falls the longer you leave it alone.
The calculator
How it works
The transaction tax is charged on each side of the round trip, at 1.32% for a fund that is both registered in Belgium and accumulating, and 0.12% for everything else — a 11-fold difference that depends on two facts about the share class rather than anything about your trade. Each side is capped, at €4,000 and €1,300 respectively, so above €303,030 on the high rate and €1,083,333 on the low one the charge stops being a percentage and becomes a flat fee. Reynders is a separate and genuinely different thing: an annual charge of 30% on the bond portion of a fund's return, applying strictly above a 10% bond holding, so a pure equity tracker escapes it entirely and a fund one percentage point over the line does not.
What it assumes
Reynders is modelled as an annual accrual on the bond sleeve, which is a simplification: in practice it is settled on the taxable portion of the gain when you sell, so the euro totals are comparable but their timing is not. The bond return is a single figure you choose and hold for the whole period. On the transaction side, the tool assumes your broker applies the statutory bracket, and some do not — several Belgian brokers charge the 1.32% rate on every accumulating Irish fund as a matter of policy regardless of registration, so the rate on your own order confirmation is the one that counts. Fund charges, broker commission and the spread are not included; the total cost of ownership calculator covers those.
The background, in prose
ETF tax in Belgium — TOB, Reynders and no capital gains tax explains the rules this calculator applies, why they are shaped the way they are, and what they mean for choosing a fund.
Common questions
- Does holding longer reduce the transaction tax?
- Not the euros, only the rate at which they hurt. The tax is charged once on the way in and once on the way out, so a round trip costs the same whether it spans one year or thirty — but spread across thirty years the annual cost is a thirtieth of what it is across one. That is why the calculator shows an amortised annual figure alongside the euro total: it is the only way to compare a one-off transaction tax against the recurring charges that make up the rest of an ETF's cost.
- When does the cap actually help me?
- Above €303,030 per side at the 1.32% rate, and above €1,083,333 at 0.12%. Past those points the charge is fixed, so the headline 11-fold gap between the two brackets narrows — the high rate has stopped growing while the low one is still a percentage. Enter a trade large enough and the calculator says so explicitly rather than quoting a multiple that no longer applies to your trade.
- Why is my broker charging the high rate on a fund that is not registered here?
- Because the bracket depends on the fund being registered with the regulator for public distribution in Belgium, and brokers differ on how they determine that — some apply the 1.32% rate to every accumulating Irish ETF rather than checking fund by fund. It is worth a look at a real order confirmation before assuming the low rate: on a round trip the difference is the 11-fold one this page opens with, and it dwarfs any plausible difference in ongoing charges between two funds tracking the same index.