New measure against corporate tax evasion: strengthening the reporting obligation for payments to "tax havens"

By the law of 28 December 2023, the legislature has strengthened the (corporate tax) obligation to report payments to "tax havens".

Context
(Non-) resident corporate taxpayers are required to report certain payments made to jurisdictions considered to be "tax havens", i.e. jurisdictions:

• which do not comply with the OECD’s Global Forum Standard of Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes; or
• on the Belgian list of jurisdictions with no or low-income taxation; or
• on the European Union list of non-cooperative jurisdictions.

Until 31 December 2023, this obligation only applied if the total payments made during the taxable period reached at least EUR 100,000. Some taxpayers circumvented this obligation by intentionally splitting payments to "tax havens" so as not to exceed this threshold. In doing so, they also avoided the risk of their payments not being tax-deductible for not being duly reported.

Strengthening
The regime has been strengthened to address this specific issue. As from tax year 2024, the reporting obligation applies as soon as both (i) paid and (ii) unpaid amounts (booked as debts) during the same taxable period exceeds EUR 100,000. This enhances transparency on significant transactions to jurisdictions considered to be "tax havens”, explicitly confirming (once again) the Belgian Government’s objective to fight tax evasion.

In case of questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to your regular contact within the Fieldfisher Belgium tax team.