Accounting errors at Belgium Ltd are no small matter
‘It’s not that simple, you say? That could very well be true, but we are not blind. We can see what kind of cars your top people drive. We can see the luxury enshrined within your offices.’ Jan Tuerlinckx, partner at Tuerlinckx Tax Lawyers, addresses the State of Belgium in a letter.
IT MADE THE NEWS the other day: the Belgian government is only an average performer where it comes to digitisation. And we may even consider ourselves fortunate in having Tax-on-web to boost our reputation.
DATA IS FOR the economy what oil used to be. It also becomes more and more important for the fiscal control. New IT applications are supposed to help optimise that control.
IN BELGIUM AND ABROAD, banks find themselves increasingly in trouble because they accept money that may not have been taxed fully in the past. It recently happened to KBC in the Netherlands, and to Degroof-Petercam before that. Sooner or later, however, all banks will probably face the same music.
THE BELGIAN COMPANY CODE (Wetboek van Vennootschappen en Verenigingen - WVV) came into effect last month. The possibility to contribute to a company’s capital with one’s work is one of the Code’s signature reforms. Or to put it in the terminology of the old code: it is now possible to contribute to the capital of the company by working for that company.
FISCALITY INFLUENCES our behaviour. People avoid highly taxed transactions or income, preferring tax exemption and low tax solutions. The government has planned for that.
THE TAX PROCEDURE of direct taxes and VAT dates back to March 1999, which is twenty years ago this month. If this anniversary may have gone unnoticed, the two decades following its introduction have by no means been plain sailing. Right from its conception, there was a suspicion that there were major flaws in the legislation.
YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE A MARTIAN to not know that elections are coming. A characteristic of our constitutional system is that the House of Representatives then designates the articles of the Constitution which may be amended in the following legislature.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION, money matters are not so complicated. If you earn an income from your work, you can either keep, invest or spend that money. Whatever the option, the State has a finger in every pie.
Doctors have an unenviable position at parties. People bombard them with dozens of medical questions about their ailments, possible medication and corresponding prescriptions, let alone the situation in which and uncle or grandchild makes an unfortunate movement or breaks something.
Almost three years ago to the day, my article “Le cadastre des fortunes arrive” was published under this section. The Central Contact Point (CCP), created by the National Bank of Belgium, has been operational since mid-2015.
Our Finance Minister announced a few weeks ago the introduction – faster than expected by Europe – of a reporting requirement for accountants and tax advisers. In fact, aggressive tax planning will be the subject of the reporting.