BELGIUM: REPORTING NO LONGER REQUIRED, PAYMENTS TO LUXEMBOURG, CYPRUS, SEYCHELLES

Payments made to Luxembourg, Cyprus, and the Seychelles during the current tax period are no longer required to be reported, according to the findings of a 29-30 October 2015 meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. The conclusion of the October 2015 meeting is that these three jurisdictions are no longer considered to be non-compliant with OECD standards.

The “current tax period” means assessment year 2016 or the financial year ending 31 December 2015 or the financial year ending in 2016 for companies with a financial year that does not follow the calendar year.

BELGIAN IMPLICATIONS

Since 1 January 2010, Belgian corporate taxpayers have had to report all direct and indirect payments made to “tax havens” (art. 307 of the Belgian tax law). The tax law defines “tax havens” as those listed on the Belgian “blacklist” or on the OECD’s blacklist.

The Belgian tax authorities recently issued a circular stating that the non-reporting of payments to Luxembourg, Cyprus or the British Virgin Islands (BVIs) does not automatically result in the non-deductibility of those payments. [The BVIs were no longer considered non-compliant in July 2015, but are still on the Belgian blacklist and therefore payments to the BVIs still must be reported.]

Read a November 2015 report prepared by the KPMG member firm in Belgium: Reporting is no longer an obligation for payments made to Luxembourg as from FY 2015