Belgium Legal interest rate (wettelijke rentevoet / taux d'intérêt légal)
Belgium Legal interest rate (wettelijke rentevoet / taux d'intérêt légal) is 4.5 percent, in force since 1 Jan 2026. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
Belgium's general legal interest rate under art. 2 of the loi/wet of 5 May 1865: one rate for civil and commercial matters, fixed for each calendar year by the Treasury and published in the Belgisch Staatsblad / Moniteur belge — 4.50% for 2026.
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| Current value | 4.5 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-01-01 |
| Official source | Wet van 5 mei 1865 betreffende de lening tegen interest, art. 2 § 1: 'het gemiddelde van de EURIBOR-rentevoet op 1 jaar tijdens de maand december van het voorafgaande jaar wordt afgerond naar het hoger gelegen kwart percent; de aldus bekomen rentevoet wordt verhoogd met 2 percent' — the Algemene Administratie van de Thesaurie (FOD Financiën) announces the resulting rate for the current calendar year in the Belgisch Staatsblad each January; fixed at 4.50% for 2026 |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Belgium runs ONE general legal rate for both civil and commercial matters (art. 2 § 1 of the law of 5 May 1865 speaks of 'burgerlijke en handelszaken' / 'matière civile et commerciale'), fixed once per calendar year. It is 4.50% for 2026 and was also 4.50% for 2025, so a claim running across the year-end carries the same figure — but the 2026 figure is a fresh annual fixing, not a carry-over. Setter: the Algemene Administratie van de Thesaurie / Administration générale de la Trésorerie of the FPS Finance, by notice in the Belgisch Staatsblad / Moniteur belge in January. TRAP IN THE FORMULA: the December average of 12-month EURIBOR is rounded UP to the next quarter point FIRST, and only then are the two percentage points added — rounding the final figure instead gives the wrong rate. Commercial invoices are a different product: late payment in handelstransacties / transactions commerciales is governed by the law of 2 August 2002 and carries 10.5% for both semesters of 2026, set half-yearly by the same Treasury — that regime is served in our late-payment-interest product, and it is the one that applies to B2B and B2G invoices. Tax debts run on yet another set of annual rates (nalatigheidsinterest / moratoriuminterest) that are outside both products. NEXT FIXING: for calendar year 2027, published in the Staatsblad / Moniteur in January 2027.
Get it programmatically
curl https://euroref.dev/v1/be/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://euroref.dev/v1/be/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/be/statutory-interestOther Belgium series: Policy interest rate · Value added tax (TVA / btw) · VAT registration threshold · National minimum wage (revenu minimum mensuel moyen garanti, RMMMG) · Public holidays · Consumer price inflation (CPI) · Corporate income tax (impôt des sociétés / vennootschapsbelasting) · Withholding tax rates · income tax rates · Statutory social-insurance contributions · ECB main refinancing operations rate (fixed rate) · Late-payment interest (EU Late Payment Directive)
The same figure elsewhere: Bulgaria · Croatia · Cyprus · Czech Republic · Denmark · all 34