Belgium has published three new Royal Decrees of 16 June 2024 on 15 July, 2024, announcing revisions to the Local File Form (275. LF), the Master File Form (275. MF), and Country-by-Country Reporting (“CbCR”) Notification Form (275 CBC NOT).

These new Royal Decrees will supersede the Royal Decrees of 28 October 2016 regarding transfer pricing documentation of the Belgian Income Tax Code.

The new Royal Decrees mandate that additional information must be included in both the Local File Form and the Master File Form. The Decrees also require submitting available TP documentation, framework agreements, and model contracts as well as the submission of the 275.CBC.NOT Form (country-by-country notification).

The Belgian tax authorities had clarified that the filing and other information requirements of the 275.CBC.NOT Form has been updated, which now requires the 275.CBC.NOT Form in case there is a need to terminate the notification obligation.

Belgian tax authorities have stated that these changes are made to enhance the in-scope taxpayers, improve the risk assessment, and provide an explanation for the additional guidance in the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines of 2022.

The new form models will apply to eligible taxpayers for submitting returns for financial years beginning on or after 1 January, 2025.

Under Action 13 of the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, every Belgium-based entity or branch of a foreign entity with operations in Belgium must submit a Local File form (275. LF) and a Master File form (275. MF) if their overall operating and financial revenues are equivalent to or exceed EUR 50 million, and the balance sheet equals or exceeds EUR 1 billion.

In addition, every Belgian qualifying multinational group whose consolidated turnover equals or surpasses  EUR 750 million in the preceding year of the current financial year must submit a country-by-country (CbC) reporting notification form (275.CBC.NOT) to the tax authorities.