Findivoza

November 7, 2026

Findivoza

World

Belgium wakes up to new rules on 1 November: bigger pay packets for most, cars seized from banned drivers, and pricier parcels

Faizan Altaf

From today, Sunday 1 November 2026, daily life changes in small but real ways for millions of people in Belgium. Workers will see different numbers on their November payslips. Drivers caught behind the wheel despite a driving ban can lose their car for good. Parents in Wallonia and Brussels face a new timetable for their babies’ vaccinations. And anyone ordering a cheap parcel from outside the European Union will find the total a little higher than before.

None of these changes arrived by accident. Each one was set in law or regulation months ago, with 1 November chosen as the start date. Together, they show a country trying to put a little more money in workers’ pockets, take a harder line on dangerous drivers, and squeeze more money out of the flood of cheap parcels arriving from abroad. Some people will be better off. Some will not. This is what changes, who it affects, and what to check this week.

At a glance

What happened: Five sets of rules take effect in Belgium on 1 November 2026: lower withholding tax on salaries, confiscation of vehicles driven during a driving ban, a new EU-wide €2 handling fee on parcels from outside the EU, a new infant vaccination schedule in Wallonia and Brussels, and new burial rules in Wallonia.

Why it matters: The pay change is the one most people will feel, with most workers gaining a few euros a month and single-income households losing up to €30. The driving-ban rule is the toughest new punishment, aimed at repeat offenders. The parcel fee is part of a Europe-wide crackdown on ultra-cheap online shopping.

What happens next: Workers should check their November payslip. Online shoppers should check the full price before ordering, especially with Black Friday and Christmas approaching. The tax-free allowance is set to keep rising over time, so payslips will keep changing.

Your pay packet: a little more for most, less for some

The change most Belgians will notice first is on their payslip. From 1 November, employers will withhold less tax from salaries under a reform passed in the law of 15 July 2026. The aim is to make work pay a little better, especially for people on low and middle incomes. The main tool is the tax-free portion of income, the slice of pay on which no tax is charged at all. That portion is set to rise over time from €10,910 to €15,600.

For most workers, the effect is small but positive. Single people and people living alone without children gain €8.47 a month in net pay; in couples where both partners work, the €8.47 applies to each partner. Families with one dependent child gain around €5 a month extra, and with two dependent children the net gain is €9.47 a month.

But not everyone gains, and this is where the change gets complicated. Some older tax benefits have been frozen or cut back in the withholding tax, and those cuts bite hardest for larger families and households with only one income. For families with three or more children, net pay can fall, because of a temporary freeze on indexation and the freezing of supplements from the third child onwards. With four dependent children, net pay falls by €2.53 a month. With five dependent children, it falls by €9.53 a month.

Single-income households are affected most of all. They lose out because of the gradual phase-out of the marital quotient, a rule that lets part of one partner’s income be shifted for tax purposes to a spouse with a low income. As that rule is wound down, their net pay falls by up to €30 a month. That is a real loss for families already living on one salary, and it is the sharpest criticism of a reform that was sold as putting more money in workers’ pockets.

Pensions and certain unemployment benefits are not affected by the change. Anyone who wants to know the exact effect on their own salary can use the Fisconetplus simulator, the Belgian tax authority’s online tool, to estimate the difference.

The amounts involved are modest — a few euros a month either way — but they touch almost every working household in the country at the same time. And because the tax-free portion is set to keep rising towards €15,600, the numbers will keep moving in the months ahead.

Banned drivers: lose the car, not just the licence

The toughest new rule is aimed at drivers who ignore a driving ban. From 1 November, a court can order the vehicle of a driver caught driving despite a ban to be confiscated — forfeited to the state. The legal term in Dutch is “verbeurdverklaring”. The confiscated car becomes state property and may be sold at public auction. A judge can decide otherwise, but only with specific reasons, for example if the car belongs to someone else, such as a partner or an employer.

The rule was reported by the Belgian newspapers Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Nieuwsblad on Thursday 29 October. It is a response to a problem the police see every day. Last year, police caught an average of 91 drivers a day driving despite having had their driving licence withdrawn. Fines and bans alone were not stopping them, so the government has moved to take away the vehicle itself.

One magistrate summed up the thinking behind the law in blunt terms: “The best way to deal with serious traffic offenders is to take away their toys.” A fine can be paid and forgotten. Losing a car is harder to ignore.

The rule does not apply to everyone in the same way, and judges keep room to make exceptions where the car is not the offender’s own. But the message is clear: driving during a ban now risks the vehicle itself, even if the driver borrowed it. Anyone with a driving ban should not drive at all — not in their own car, and not in someone else’s.

Online shopping: the €2 parcel charge arrives

Belgian shoppers are also caught by a change that is not Belgian at all, but European. From 1 November, a new EU handling fee of €2 applies to parcels ordered online from outside the European Union and delivered to a private individual inside it. The fee is charged for each category of item in a parcel, not per parcel and not per item. A parcel with two toys, one coat and two bottles of perfume carries a €6 fee, because it holds three categories. A parcel with three T-shirts and one pair of shoes carries a €4 fee. Ten identical T-shirts would cost just €2.

There is no minimum value: the fee applies whatever the parcel is worth. It sits on top of the €3 flat customs duty that has applied since 1 July 2026 to small parcels worth €150 or less. That means a cheap parcel with one category of goods now carries at least €5 in charges before VAT.

Formally, the fee is paid by the platform or the seller — companies such as Amazon, Temu and AliExpress — and not by the buyer. The EU has said European consumers will not be charged it directly. But sellers are free to raise their prices to cover the cost, and several already did exactly that to absorb the earlier €3 duty. Shoppers should therefore check the total price before ordering, rather than assuming the fee will stay invisible.

The fee was set by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2152, published in the EU’s Official Journal on 22 October 2026, and it is permanent. The EU must review it every two years to keep it in line with the cost of customs checks. The €3 duty, by contrast, is temporary: it is due to be replaced by standard product-specific customs duties in July 2028.

Brussels is acting because of the sheer scale of the trade. About 5.9 billion small parcels entered the EU in 2025 — more than 180 every second, and four times the level of 2022 — with 93 percent of them coming from China, usually through Shein, Temu and AliExpress. Since the €3 duty was imposed in July, imports have fallen by around 64 percent, although officials warn it is too early to draw firm conclusions.

Belgium feels the effect more than most countries. The port of Antwerp and Liège airport are major entry points for parcels, and Belgian customs collected €364 million from the existing €3 small-parcel tax between June and September 2026 alone. Parcel volumes at Liège airport have fallen by 60 percent since the June rules took hold. The new €2 fee arrives just weeks before Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Christmas shopping peak.

Babies and burials: smaller changes in Wallonia and Brussels

Two quieter changes affect families in the French-speaking south of the country and in Brussels. From 1 November, Wallonia and Brussels have a new infant vaccination schedule. The hexavalent vaccine, which protects against six diseases in a single injection, will now be given at two, four and 12 months. The last dose of the pneumococcal vaccine known as PCV13 moves from 12 months to 15 months. Parents of babies in Wallonia and Brussels should expect the new timing when they plan their child’s vaccinations, and check the dates with their doctor or clinic.

Wallonia is also reforming its burial rules. Families arranging a burial in Wallonia must now use a coffin made of solid wood or biodegradable materials. Burial with a cremated pet becomes possible for the first time. Shrouds stay banned.

These two changes are smaller than the pay and driving reforms, and they affect fewer people. But they show the same pattern as the rest of the 1 November package: rules decided weeks or months ago, all landing on the same day, all requiring people to adjust habits they may have followed for years.

Why so many changes land on the same day

It is no coincidence that five different changes take effect on 1 November. Governments and the EU routinely pick the first day of a month as the start date for new rules, because it is easy for employers, payroll offices, customs and clinics to plan around. The tax reform was written into the law of 15 July 2026. The parcel fee was published in the Official Journal on 22 October. The driving-ban confiscation was reported in the Belgian press on 29 October. Different laws, different authors, same start date.

What to check this week

For workers, the first step is simple: look at the November payslip when it arrives and compare it with October. The change should be automatic, and any difference should be small — a few euros either way. Anyone whose pay has fallen sharply should check with their employer or payroll office. The Fisconetplus simulator can give a rough estimate of what the change should be.

For online shoppers, the advice is to look at the total price at checkout, including any fees, before confirming an order from a non-EU webshop. Combining items from the same category in one parcel can keep the fee down, since the €2 is charged per category rather than per item. And shoppers should remember that customs services never send requests for payment of duties or fees to individuals by message or email — any such message is a scam.

Frequently asked questions

Will every worker in Belgium earn more from 1 November?

No. Most workers gain a few euros a month, but some lose out. Single people gain €8.47 a month, and couples where both partners work gain €8.47 each. But families with four or five dependent children see small falls in net pay, and single-income households can lose up to €30 a month as the marital quotient is phased out.

Do I need to do anything to get the higher net pay?

No. The change is automatic. Your employer or its payroll office applies the new withholding tax calculations to your November pay.

Can the police take my car if I drive during a driving ban?

From 1 November, a court can order your vehicle to be confiscated and forfeited to the state if you are caught driving despite a ban. The car may then be sold at public auction. A judge can make an exception with specific reasons, for example if the car belongs to someone else.

How much will the new parcel fee add to my online orders?

The EU handling fee is €2 per category of item in a parcel, on top of the €3 duty on parcels worth €150 or less. A parcel with one category of goods costs at least €5 extra before VAT. The fee is formally paid by the seller or platform, but sellers may raise prices to cover it.

Does the €2 parcel fee apply to parcels from the UK or the United States?

Yes, if the parcel is ordered online from outside the EU’s customs territory and delivered to a private individual inside the EU. There is no minimum value, so even a very cheap parcel is covered. Parcels sent between EU countries are not affected.

What changes for babies’ vaccinations in Wallonia and Brussels?

The hexavalent vaccine is now given at two, four and 12 months, and the last PCV13 dose moves from 12 months to 15 months. Parents should confirm the new dates with their doctor or clinic.

Conclusion

The 1 November changes will not transform Belgium overnight. The pay rises are measured in single euros, the parcel fee in twos, and the vaccination and burial changes touch only some families. But the driving-ban rule is a genuine hardening of the law, and the parcel fee is part of a Europe-wide shift that is already reshaping online shopping — imports down by around 64 percent since July and parcel volumes at Liège airport down 60 percent.

For most people, the practical work this week is small: check the payslip, the price at checkout, and the vaccination dates. But the direction of travel is clear. Belgium is paying workers a little more while taking more from the biggest households, punishing banned drivers more harshly, and joining the EU in making cheap parcels from abroad a little less cheap. The effects will show up gradually — in payslips, in courtrooms, and in shopping baskets — over the months ahead.

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.

Sources

Faizan Altaf

Faizan Altaf is the founder and author of findivoza.com, a news blog covering world, Pakistan, business, technology, health and sport in plain English. He writes for general readers who want clear, trustworthy news without jargon. His work focuses on explaining what happened, why it matters, and what to watch next.

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