- A recent Belgian court ruling says a VAT penalty can be canceled if, based on the facts, suspension or deferment would have been granted had the law allowed it, since VAT law does not provide for that option.
- The Constitutional Court has already held that this legal gap is unconstitutional for sanctions with a criminal character.
- In this case, a real estate company wrongly deducted VAT on a mixed building; after audit it accepted the correction but challenged a proportional fine of EUR 35,270.
- The court found that because the company had no prior offenses, acknowledged the violations, and cooperated with the tax authorities, deferment would have been appropriate, so it annulled the fine entirely.
- The ruling shows that taxpayers acting in good faith and cooperating with the administration may successfully challenge proportional VAT fines, depending on the specific facts.
Source: tiberghien.com
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
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