Besides a package of tax reform measures (see PwC Newsflash of 30 September), the new Federal Government has announced measures to improve the correct collection of taxes, amongst which :
- coordination of the fight against fraud;
- official creation of multidisciplinary audit teams over the 5 regional directions with the aim to the fight against cross-border fraud;
- strengthening of the capacity of the Justice department and the Police to handle big fraud cases (and an evaluation and possible amendment of the Criminal Settlements Act);
- reactivation of the Committee for the Fight against Fraud;
- concentration of expertise regarding complex international tax structures within one team. This way, the recent trend observed in our practice since a few months (see our newsflash of 26 June) will likely be formalised.
The announcement of a new reporting obligation for Belgian accounts to the Central Point of Contact (CPC) with a view to enhancing tax transparency gave rise to significant commotion. The CPC is a register created in 2011 within the National Bank of Belgium that already holds the numbers (of individuals as well as corporations) of bank accounts opened with Belgian financial institutions and which tax authorities have access to under certain conditions in specific circumstances. Belgian residents are also obliged to report their foreign accounts to the CPC.
According to the Agreement of the new Government, the Belgian institutions will, besides the account numbers, also have to report the balances of these accounts. With respect to investigations in individual files, the access of the tax authorities would remain the same. However, it is the intention to grant access to the CPC for data mining purposes (subject to an approval procedure). This data mining (as of September 2021) will be further examined by the tax authorities and by the Data Protection Authority in order to guarantee that the rights of taxpayers and their privacy can be safeguarded. If access to account balances and data mining is allowed, the CPC information will be a criterion for selection of files for further investigation, similarly to the CRS information, which is also very often a trigger for an in-depth tax audit.
A Fiscal Charter as well as a Code of Conduct will be introduced to improve the relationship between the tax authorities and companies when dealing with tax audits. This intention is probably inspired by the Tax Package for a Fair and Simple Taxation adopted by the European Commission on 15 July 2020. This Tax Package includes a recommendation expected to be presented by the Commission by mid-2021 for the Member States to implement a Charter on Taxpayers’ Rights.
Finally, similarly to the announcements from previous Government(s), an action plan to combat fraud will be established.
We note a clear focus on enhancing tax investigations and transparency and on combating (international) fraud. We will follow closely how these ambitions will be implemented in concrete measures.
