On February 14, 2019 the General Court of the CJEU rendered judgment on the Belgian “Excess profit” tax ruling system case (T-131/16). Belgian tax legislation provided for the possibility of advance rulings allowing a company that is a member of a multinational group to make unilateral downward adjustments to its taxable base for “excess profits”. The General Court ruled that the Commission had failed to demonstrate the existence of an aid scheme and hence, the Commission’s decision of January 11, 2016 was annulled in its entirety.

The French Speaking Court of Appeal in Brussels (the “Court”) recently decided that the imposition of the ‘Belgian annual tax on collective investment vehicles’ on a Luxembourg SICAV is contrary to the Double Taxation Treaty concluded between Belgium and Luxembourg (hereafter “DTT”) and that the tax thus had to be reimbursed by the Belgian State, increased with interest (7% p.a.).

The Court of Appeal took this view in two judgments (pilot cases) after also the French Speaking and the Dutch Speaking benches of the Court of First Instance in Brussels had reached the same result in a number of cases over the past years.