Articles

The Constitutional Court has ruled that the retroactive application of the annual tax on credit institutions for assessment year 2016 cannot be upheld, opening the door for a reclaim.

On 27 October 2022 the Belgian Constitutional Court issued a long-awaited judgement on the annual tax on securities accounts.[1] The Court cancels the specific anti-abuse measures and the retroactive application of the general anti-abuse measure.[2] Though, the Court dismisses the remaining grievances of taxpayers and rules that the tax as such is compatible with the principles ...

The Belgian Tax Authorities published two new circular letters on 28 September 2022 as follows: Circular 2022/C/99 concerning VAT refund procedures: This Circular includes a first commentary for the modified VAT refund procedures as provided in Royal Decree nr. 56 of 10 April 2022 regarding VAT refund to VAT taxable persons established in another Member State than the Member ...

Het Hof van Justitie heeft op 8 september 2022 in de zaak W GmbH (C C‑98/21) het recht op aftrek van de btw op diverse kosten die gemaakt worden door actieve holdings verder genuanceerd. Het Hof heeft geoordeeld dat een actieve holding de voorbelasting alleen kan aftrekken voor zover deze betrekking heeft op haar eigen (btw-belaste) economische activiteiten.

On 15 September 2022, the Belgian Constitutional Court (hereafter: the Court) ruled in the joint cases of Belgian lawyers and the Institute of Tax Advisors and Accountants (ITAA) concerning the implementation of the DAC6 Directive (2018/822 EU) into Belgian legislation (hereafter: DAC6 legislation).  The DAC6 legislation obliges intermediaries to disclose qualifying reportable arrangements to the Tax Authorities but facilitates a conditional exemption for those bound by legal professional privilege. The plaintiffs of the current case all have legal professional privilege and, in that context, challenged the DAC6 legislation based on fundamental rights.

The incremental notional interest deduction (NID) will be positive again. As a reminder, for an assessment year (e.g. AY 2024) the rate is calculated on the average return of the 10-year Belgian government bond in the months July, August and September of the penultimate year preceding the assessment year (e.g. 2022). Given the fact that the rate for September has just been pu ...

The Belgian Council of Ministers decided last Friday, 24 June 2022, to extend the application of the reduced VAT rate in the context of the following temporary measures: Mouth masks and hydroalcoholic gels – 6% until end of 2022: The Belgian Council of Ministers approved a draft Royal Decree which extends the application of the 6% VAT rate for the supply, intra-Community acq ...

The Belgian Tax Authorities published on 15 June 2022 a new FAQ concerning the VAT treatment of the provision of furnished accommodation (see: NL / FR - hereafter: ‘new FAQ’). The new FAQ provides guidance and clarifications about the amended scope of the exception on the VAT exemption, effective from 1 July 2022.

Additionally, the Belgian Tax Authorities also published an FAQ concerning the temporary application of the reduced VAT rate of 6% for solar panels, heat pumps and solar water heaters (see NL / FR). This FAQ is outside the scope of this news item. For background information on this temporary measure, see our earlier news item here.

Extended VAT filing deadlines The Belgian Tax Authorities announced the extension of VAT filing deadlines for the summer period of 2022 (see announcement in NL / FR / DE). Accordingly, the following new deadlines apply: For filing the VAT return and the European Sales Listing of June/Q2 2022, the deadlines are extended to 10 August 2022. The initial deadlines were 20 July 2 ...