Memos and publications

Under current Belgian law, anyone who becomes self-employed must join a social insurance fund for the self-employed within 90 days of starting self-employment.

On 14 December 2009, the extension until 31 December 2010 of the reduced VAT rates in the building industry and the reduced VAT rate for restaurant services has been published in the Belgian Official Gazette.

Subject to the fulfilment of a number of conditions, in Flanders one can enjoy an exemption from estate taxes upon the transfer due to death of a family business or of shares in a family company. In the Policy Memorandum Finance and Budget 2009-2014, the Flemish Minister of Finance, Philippe Muyters, is now proposing to eliminate the employment condition entirely. The beneficial regime would enter into force with retroactive effect. Nevertheless, account must also be taken of the (possible) other side of the coin.

Belgium has improved its tax climate considerably in recent years. This may be illustrated by an improvement of its domestic tax legislation, an extension of its tax treaty network and well established ruling practice. Below we summarize Belgium’s main tax features.

On 11 September 2009, the Belgian Government introduced the draft bill to the Belgian Parliament to implement the VAT package and the Council Directive 2008/117/EC of 16 December 2008 to combat tax evasion connected with intra-Community transactions.

This report mainly focuses on the aspects of Belgian tax law which may be relevant for (foreign) companies operating in Belgium. In 2008, the Belgian government continued its efforts .....

On the occasion of Realty, the first International forum for Real Estate, that took place in Brussels from 5 to 7 may 2009, in cooperation with Altius, Tiberghien published a Real Estate Gazette.

ECJ rules that Belgian participation exemption conflicts with E.U. Parent Subsidiary Directive! On February 12, 2009 the ECJ ruled that the Belgian participation exemption conflicts with the parent-subsidiary Directive and stated that article 4(1) of the Directive must be interpreted as precluding legislation of a Member State "which provides that dividends received by a parent company are to be included in its basis of assessment in order subsequently to be deducted from that basis in the amount of 95%, in so far as, for the tax period in question, the parent company has a positive profit balance after deduction of other exempted profits." Finally the ECJ stated that it was not appropriate to limit the effects of its judgment in time, since Belgium was unable to demonstrate that there is a risk of serious economic repercussions.

A law introducing some fundamental changes in the Belgian Income Tax Code with a view to implement EU Directive 2005/19/EC on the tax treatment of cross-border corporate restructurings has recently been published in the Belgian Official Gazette, and is applicable to transactions carried out as of the date of its publication (12 January 2009).