On 8 February 2019, the Belgian Federal Public Service (SPF) Finance published Circular Letter No. 2019/C/14 regarding penalties due if a taxpayer fails to fulfill its transfer pricing (TP) reporting obligations. The Circular Letter is an annex to Circular Letter No. 2017/c/56 providing additional guidance to these TP reporting obligations.
According to Circular Letter, there is no penalty in case of violation independent from the will of the taxpayer. In case of violation without the willful intent to harm or to commit fraud the minimum penalty is EUR 1,250 and not more than EUR 25,000 as from the second violation until the fifth and following. In case of violation with the willful intent to harm or to commit fraud the penalty for the first violation is EUR 12,500 and for the second violation and following EUR 25,000.
Violations without the willful intent to harm or to commit fraud are being penalized as from 19 July 2018. Violations with the willful intent to harm or to commit fraud are penalized as from 8 January 2018. It seems that once the systems of the tax authorities are fully operational, this will be monitored closely and notifications for penalties will be sent to taxpayers in case of late or non-filing.
