On 22 January 2015, the Belgian Constitutional Court rendered a judgement annulling the retroactive increase of the Net Asset Tax (“NAT”) rate introduced by the Act of 17 June 2013 with respect to assessment year 2013. This Act had increased the NAT rate from 0.0800% to 0.0965% as from 1 January 2013, as a result of which the increased NAT rate of 0.0965% applied to NAT returns already filed. So taxpayers who filed a NAT return for assessment year 2013 were forced to pay an additional NAT of 0.0165%.
The Act of 17 June 2013 has also increased the NAT rate to 0.0925% as from 1 January 2014. This second increase of the NAT rate for assessment year 2014 and onwards has not been examined by the Constitutional Court.
Following this judgement, Belgian and foreign collective investment undertakings as well as insurance companies who paid the additional NAT of 0.0165% for assessment year 2013 can ask the Belgian tax authorities for a refund.
For credit institutions, the impact of this judgement is unclear, as the NAT rate for these taxpayers had been increased a second time for assessment year 2013 (cf. articles 70, 71, 73 and 74 of the Act of 30 July 2013). Note that a similar case is still pending before the Belgian Constitutional Court, which specifically targets the NAT rate for credit institutions. We will keep you informed in this respect.
Download the judgement:
