Flemish tax regularisation ends on 31 December 2020
On 31 December 2020, the possibility to regularise evaded Flemish taxes will definitively end. This was decided from the outset, and is now also expressly confirmed by the Flemish government.
The possibility to regularise federal taxes does however remain in place, and this (at least) until 31 December 2023. That was agreed in the coalition agreement of the De Croo I government.
How do both tax regularisations relate to each other, and what does this now mean in practice?
In Belgium, the possibility to regularise evaded taxes at the Contact Point for Regularisations was exclusively regulated by law: this was the case since the so-called single liberating return (EBA) saw the light of day in 2003, and was regulated in the same way with regard to both the EBA bis (from 1 January 2006 to 14 July 2013) and the EBA ter (from 15 July 2013 to 31 December 2013).
By judgment of 19 September 2014, the Constitutional Court nevertheless decided that the possibility to regularise regional taxes (more specifically Flemish succession and registration duties, today Flemish inheritance tax) on the basis of a federal law was unconstitutional.
This was rectified in the so-called EBA quater, which is regulated by law as regards federal taxes, but also by decree and ordinance as regards regional taxes. Since then, there has therefore also been a Flemish tax regularisation. For the practical handling, cooperation agreements were concluded between the various authorities.
Because the Flemish tax regularisation ends on 31 December 2020, this evidently means that from 1 January 2021 no more returns can be made for evaded Flemish (inheritance) taxes. The possibility to regularise federal, Walloon and Brussels taxes does however continue to exist. In principle, the abolition of the Flemish tax regularisation has no influence on this. Unless there is a “mixed” regularisation. This is for example the case when a taxpayer wishes to regularise an amount that was once inherited but not declared, and that has continued to yield interest since then.
It is therefore primarily the taxpayers who have evaded inheritance taxes who should best still head to the counters of the Contact Point for Regularisations. This can also be done on the basis of a still incomplete file. Minister Diependaele has indeed announced that a provisional return for 1 euro can be submitted until 31 December 2020 at the latest. After that, the taxpayer still has a period of 6 months to substantiate their provisional return and make their Flemish tax regularisation definitive.
Forewarned is forearmed!
More information? Contact us…