Hi Guys,
I am an expat, working in a company in Brussels. Now I live in a small town in Wollone Region, not far away from Brussels.
Two years ago we bought an apartment with 225,000 euros, and selling price for this apartment was 245,000 euros, and 225,000 was the offer we could give as the apartment was in a very bad situation. Finally we got the apartment, and before moving in we spent a lot of money to renovate the apartment. A few weeks ago, we received a mail from the Belgian Financial Department, informing me that the apartment was worth 280,000 euros and we must pay additional tax (280,000-225,000)*16.5%. It is very ridiculous as the apartment is not worth such a large amount of money. For example, in our building there is another apartment on sale, which has the selling price 270,000 euros with good conditions and larger area (100 square meters). For our apartment, the area is 88 square meters. On top of it, 270,000 is only the selling price. We feel very upset with the Belgian Financial Department, and I have met the official but he was a very difficult person to handle. I gave all the evidence that could show the real value of apartment (e.g. the evaluation report by the expert, invoices of our renovation materials, as well as the advertisement for the departments in our building). But he insisted as in 2013 there was a apartment in our building with the same area was sold with 280,000 euros. It is completely insane. How could he use the highest price in our building to evaluate our apartment? The time and the conditions are different after all. Besides, why did not he use our building's other apartments' selling price to evaluate our apartment? I argued with him but he just did not listen. I feel very angry and was wondering in this situation what I can do next. Thanks.