On 2 November 2020 the government reached an agreement on a new securities account tax, due on securities accounts held by resident and non-resident individuals, companies and legal entities of which the average value of the taxable financial instruments (excluding nominative securities) exceeds 1 million EUR.
The rate is set at 0,15% limited to 10% on the difference between the taxable base and 1 million EUR (to mitigate the effects of the tax if the average value would just exceed the 1 million EUR threshold).
The government is confident that the new securities account tax is constitutional (legitimate and non-discriminatory) since it includes all financial instruments and all securities accounts also those held by companies (for prior coverage).
Also, the draft bill includes a general anti-abuse provision pursuant to which it is not allowed to:
- spread taxable financial instruments over different securities accounts to avoid the threshold of 1 million EUR for an individual account;
- converse taxable financial instruments into nominative securities;
- transfer a securities account to a foreign legal entity which transfers the securities to a foreign securities account;
- transfer a securities account to a fund of which the parts are nominative
In those situations, there is a refutable presumption of abuse which means that the new tax will apply unless the taxpayer provides evidence to the contrary.
As announced in the Belgian State Gazette of 4 November 2020, the government decided that the anti-abuse provision, for the purposes of the new tax on securities accounts, will apply retroactively as from 30 October 2020. Any of the above transactions done as from 30 October 2020 will be deemed abusive (unless evidence to the contrary).
