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.

The Parliament approved in plenary session a law organizing the introduction of a reporting and withholding tax obligation for all Belgian employers w ...