First bill of program law containing inter alia a permanent amnesty procedure submitted to parliament

On 26 November 2015, the Belgian federal government submitted a bill of program law (I) to the parliament.

The bill contains three tax measures:

• A full tax exemption of the employment supplement paid to employees enjoying a bridging pension as of tax year 2017;
• An announced budgetary amendment of the percentages introduced by the law of 10 August 2015, limiting the notional interest deduction regime (NID) for banks and insurance companies for the tax years 2016 and 2017; and
• The introduction of a permanent amnesty procedure as of 1 January 2016.

Under the permanent amnesty procedure it will be possible, as this was the case under the previous schemes to regularize unreported income, VAT transactions, time-barred capital amounts and social security contributions for self-employed persons.

The new procedure does not make a distinction anymore between ordinary tax fraud and severe organised tax fraud. However, it will be the declarant who in respected of time-barred capital amounts must provide proof to what extent the capital is tainted. If such proof is not available, the full amount of the capital will be subject to the penalty.

The applicable penalties are as follows:

Persons who have regularized unreported income and capital will enjoy be immune for penal prosecution unless the funds relate to excluded criminal offences.

For the time being only federal taxes and duties can be regularized.