No major indirect tax measures are expected due to lack of government in Belgium. Today, there is government operating with proxies which expire end of June and can only take temporary measures, e.g. to fight the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.
Covid measures
- VAT rate on food and non-alocohol dinks sold in restaurants, pubs, catering, etc reduced from June 8 till Dec 31, 2020 (Link)
- Donations in kind of PPE and computers VAT free from 1 March 2020 and 31 July 2020 (Link). It is expected that the VAT free donation of PPE’s will be extended. Circular 2020/C/58 on donating goods to certain institutions and donations in kind (Link)
- Exemption from Import Customs Duties and VAT for selected goods (Link). Circular 2020/C/54 on the temporary exemption from VAT on imports (Covid-19) (Link)
- Circular 2020/C/65 on the temporarily reduced VAT rate (6%) for mouth masks and hydroalcoholic gels applicable between May 4 and December 31, 2020 (Link)
- Belgium introduced further measures on deferral of VAT return filing and paument. As of the May VAT return, the deferral will not longer be available to all Belgian based businesses, but can still be requested to the tax authorities if argumented (Link)
Other developments
- Royal Decrees issued
- Royal Decree No 31 – Transactions performed by taxable persons not established in Belgium (Link)
- Royal Decree No. 52 with regard to the evidence system regarding the exemptions regarding the IC supplies of goods (Link)
- Royal Decree No. 56 – VAT refund to taxable persons established in a Member State other than the Member State of refund (Link)
- The authorities recently issued a couple of circulars
- Circular 2020/C/50 on the VAT system of B2B intra-Community trade in goods (Link). This Circular gives a holistic overview of the VAT aspects of intra-EU trade incl. the implementation of the Quick Fixes. This is really an excellent reference document.
- Circular 2020/C/66 on the VAT exempted transport of certain categories of persons (Link)
- Circular 2020/C/73 on the exemption from VAT in the context of psychology, orthopedagogy and psychotherapy (Link)
- An implementation of a Digital Services Tax is not expected soon, although some political parties have put proposals on the table (Link)
- There is no indication of an implementation of mandatory B2B E-Invoicing, Real Time Reporting of SAF-T
- Impressions from business are that VAT audits focus on Data Mining, with the request from the authorities on downloads of information available in accounting systems
- There is no indication of a general VAT increase/decrease
