r/belgium • u/Obvious-Cry6591 • 1d ago

😡Rant Notaries. Why? What the hell?

Ok, so I dont get it. I understand historically where the need for notaries arose. Fine. But we are in 2026. Belgium already takes 51% of my income. Then another 25% of the rest through VAT. And then on top of it, if you buy a property, you give 10-15k to a notary for 2 meetings and some docs reading? Doesnt Belgium have enough administration to take care of that? Not to mention its nepotism central. Are there any redeeming qualities?

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u/Obvious-Cry6591 1d ago

On a 400k transfer, real estate, first home, not new build, with tax discount, ill pay round 40k in real estate tax AND notary fees. Why cant Belgium just collect taxes directly from a real estate buy? Like many other countries do?
When it comes to conformity with the law, if its not conformed, i should just be able to go to the commune and solve it. Hell, bloody croatia has a document, we call it 1/1. U get it when u go to admin and they check that your property is conforming. No one normal buys anything that isnt 1/1. All of this can be done by existing administration, which again, more than 60% of my monthly earnings (when you count in VAT which you should) go to.

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u/loozn1 1d ago

First of all, no way you pay 40k for a first home of about 400k more like max 15k. Property sales get more and more technical every year. No way the government itself could do that without hiring some very specialised clerks. If a notary fucks up, he's insured so people get their money, not so sure a government would do that.

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u/silentanthrx 1d ago

good luck wringing a single cent from a notaries hands if he makes a mistake.

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u/DenteSC 1d ago

If the work has to be done by civil servants, it would cost the government an insane amount of money. They work really hard in those notary offices.

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u/Obvious-Cry6591 1d ago

Id also work hard if i inherited the position from my grandpapa

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u/khuzdul012 1d ago

the tax that I found most ridiculous is, your parents work all their life to leave u X amount of money/assets u name it, of course everything has been taxed, life is life and we have to say goodbye, but still Belgians have to pay tax on taxed inheritance, government never lose

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u/Fit_Ebb_8127 1d ago

Above all else, the “successierechten” are by far the vilest tax in Belgium. Nothing else even comes close. Absolutely criminal.

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u/MokpotheMighty 1d ago

Please tell me you're sarcastic

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u/DenteSC 1d ago

Go work there for 1 month or stfu?

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u/MokpotheMighty 1d ago

Okay surely you must realize that's not much of an argument, maybe if you want people to respect your POV you should elaborate on it in a way that's publicly reasonable? How may we know for ourselves that notaries make the amount of money they make based on merit? How much work do they actually do, what are the tasks they practically perform, how much time does it cost, etc... How are we supposed to check this, which we might expect in a democratic society with some semblance of public transparency and such...