Enhanced transparency for multinational enterprises: Multilateral agreement enabling automatic sharing of Country-by-Country reports signed
31 countries signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on 28 January 2016, which will bring greater sharing of information in international tax matters. The MCCA provides for the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports, enabling tax administrations to obtain a complete understanding of how multinational enterprise operations are structured across the value chain, while ensuring
Belgium – Reduced dividend withholding tax rate of 1.6995% for minority corporate shareholders
The Belgian withholding tax act has been recently modified as a result of the European ‘Tate & Lyle’ case. The new Act limits the withholding tax on dividends distributed to foreign minority corporate shareholders by Belgian companies to 1.6995% instead of 27%, if certain conditions are met. In 2012, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Belgian dividend
New draft legislation published on the status and supervision of insurance or reinsurance companies
This draft legislation proposes important new rules for reinsurance companies and fills certain gaps currently existing in the law. 1. Current legislation The legislation on insurance and reinsurance companies is currently split into two parts: the Act of 9 July 1975 on the control of insurance companies (the Insurance Act) and the Act of 16
Belgian Net Asset Tax before the Court of Justice of the EU – AG’s Opinion released
According to the Advocate General’s opinion issued on 21 January 2016, the Belgian Net Asset Tax applied to foreign investment funds is compatible with European law. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) was requested, by the Court of Appeal of Brussels, to grant a preliminary ruling on the compatibility, with European
Securities Financing Transactions Regulation enters into force
The new Regulation on transparency of Securities Financing Transactions (also known as SFTR) was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 23 December 2015 and entered into force on 12 January 2016. The SFTR is part of the Commission’s action plan on shadow banking and aims to improve the transparency of certain transactions
