Belgium drops parcel tax in favour of European levy

Belgium is abandoning its plans for a separate parcel tax and will follow the European levy of three euros for e-commerce parcels from outside the European Union instead.

European only

In December, European finance ministers reached an agreement on a three-euro levy on parcels worth up to 150 euros coming from outside the European Union. The measure mainly targets cheap parcels from China, ordered via platforms such as Temu, AliExpress and Shein. The aim is to counter competition from these direct imports, which many European retailers consider unfair, and to enable more customs checks. In this way, the EU hopes to be able to prevent more unsafe or illegal products from entering the market.

At the end of November, Belgium had announced its own tax of two euros, while the Netherlands and France also announced similar levies. The Belgian parcel tax was expected to generate 140 million euros next year and up to 300 million euros in subsequent years. However, that plan has now been scrapped: the country will join the European levy from July 2026, according to the office of Finance Minister Jan Jambon.

Temporary tax

The Belgian government hopes that part of the revenue from the European tax will flow to the member states, but there is no certainty about this yet. In any case, the European parcel tax is considered a temporary solution: from 2028, the European Union wants to completely abolish the import exemption for parcels up to 150 euros, so that all goods will be subject to customs duties from the first euro.

In 2024, approximately 4.6 billion parcels with a value of less than 150 euros entered the European Union, averaging 12 million per day. Ninety percent came from China. Belgium plays a central role as a logistics hub, particularly via Liège airport. An estimated three million Chinese parcels arrive there every day.