Breaking news – milestone for chiropractic in Belgium!

The following announcement has been made by the Belgian Chiropractic Union:

Today the Belgian Constitutional Court ruled in favour of chiropractic! In line with the ruling of the European Court of Justice in June 2019, the CC decided that the new Belgian VAT law art 44 §1 of January 2016 is in conflict with the EU guideline 2006/112. This means that VAT cannot be applied to chiropractic care. It was expected that the CC would follow the ruling of the ECJ, but still it was a final step that had to be taken.

What does this mean?

It means that art 44§1 will be destroyed. Immediately. It is now up to the new government to develop a new article that is not in conflict with EU guidelines. This will not be so easy and the fact that we are a non-regulated profession does not mean VAT can be applied to our services. Another consequence of this ruling is that the easiest way out for the new government is to regulate chiropractic. And this is exactly what we will strive for.

The BCU council would like to thank all BCU members for your confidence and your patience over the years! This VAT issue was a struggle for many decades and many BCU councils over the years were involved to solve this problem. It took a lot of work and it was a significant financial burden but eventually a court case was the only option left. Only as an union we were able to make the difference, so thank you again for your support!