Your mother who was living in New Zealand passed away and you inherited a nice sum of money. You want to bring this back to Belgium. Is any inheritance tax due? You sold your share of the family farm in Kansas and you made a nice capital gain, you paid capital gains tax in the US, is any capital gains tax due in Belgium? You …
Non-doms, what’s in a name
By a bizarre twist of events, while Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced an increase of the national insurance contributions, it came to light that his wife, Akshata Murthy has non domicile status and avoids an estimated £20 million in taxes in the United Kingdom. She is the daughter of N. R. Narayana Murthy, the founder of the Indian IT multinational Infosys, and …
TEP-talks
EU officials: An Introduction to Taxes 21 April 2022 @ 18:00 The tax status of an EU official is governed by the articles 12 and 13 of the Protocol (No 7) on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union.Article 12 states that the remuneration they receive from the European Institutions is exempt from national taxes in the Member States. The exemption of the remuneration paid by the international institutions …
Hosting Ukrainian refugees, and taxes?
On 23 March 2022, The Belgian Federal Service for Finance has issued clarifications on the tax consequences of hosting Ukrainian refugees who have fled their country following the invasion by Russia. The main clarifications are Hosting refugees at home (for free!) does not impact the tax regime of your home. An owner-occupied house continues to be fully tax exempt for income tax purposes. Moreover, the …
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The tax deduction for alimony payments
The Court of Justice of the European Union has rendered a decision that will give more non-residents a personal allowance, an allowance for dependent children and the right to deduct the alimony or maintenance they pay. Belgian residents can deduct 80% of the alimony or maintenance payments they made during the year (Article 104 ITC 1992 if they meet the conditions following conditions : they …
Bringing back the bitcoins
In recent months, there have been reports in the press about the problems investors in crypto currencies have transferring their gains to their bank accounts. Not only gains from crypto platforms, but also large-ish inheritances or sales of properties abroad are monitored with questions about the origin of the money, and if no acceptable answer is given, a freeze of the assets. Cryptocurrencies pose a …
Buying a house at 3% in Flanders
The purchase tax on buying a property is a registration tax, that is a tax due when the notary’s deed is registered with the Ministry of Finance. Traditionally, the purchase tax was 12.5%, but a few years ago Flanders reduced the standard rate to 10% with a reduced rate of 6% for first time buyers. Since 1 January, the standard rate has gone back up …
Belgium replaces its Expatriate Tax Regime by an Inpatriate Tax Regime
Belgium has introduced an inpatriate tax regime starting from 2022 that will phase out the expatriate tax regime. The new rules must give the tax regime the legal certainty that the 1983 tax regime lacked while promoting Belgium to foreign investors and enable international companies to post or recruit qualified personnel at an acceptable and competitive cost. The 1983 expatriate tax regime Foreign executives have …
That (unknown) Stock Exchange Tax
The tax you don’t know you have to pay The tax on stock exchange transactions (Taxe sur les Opérations boursières/Taks op Beursverrichtingen in short “TOB), also called the stock exchange tax, is one of the least known taxes in Belgium even if it has been in existence for over a century. Initially, when the stock exchange tax was introduced in 1913, it was only due …
Inheritance tax return: the value of real estate
When a Belgian resident dies, his next of kin have four months to file an inheritance tax return. They usually do this together, but they can do this separately as well, usually when they disagree. In practice, they call upon a notary to help them file the inheritance tax return, but that is not obligatory, not even when the deceased owned real estate. We cannot …