The Official Gazette issue of 31 December 2013 notifies some new tax rules. The first measure aligns the rules relating to notional interest deductions (NID) with the judgment of the European Court of Justice in the Argenta Spaarbank case. The NID provides a deduction for corporate taxpayers based on their adjusted net equity; the ECJ ruled that the exclusion from the NID base of the assets of a PE of a Belgian taxpayer located in another EU member state constituted a restriction of the freedom of establishment, and was therefore invalid. Under the change, the NID base will now include assets of PEs of Belgian companies in other EU states.
It has also been confirmed that withholding tax and advance tax prepayments are creditable and refundable with regard to the fairness tax due from tax year 2014. Further, the one-time investment deduction for small companies has been reintroduced for 2014 and 2015, at 4%. This may be further extended by Royal Decree, and the measure enters into force on 1 January 2014.
