In the scope of the agreement reached during the summer, the federal government announced several new tax measures. From a personal tax point of view, one of the changes foreseen is to reduce the tax benefits granted to people for whom the taxable period does not correspond to a full calendar year. In such case, certain tax benefits will be granted on pro rata temporis basis only.
This will be the case for, for example, tax residents of Belgium who leave Belgium during the calendar year and break tax residency during the year. A number of tax reductions (e.g. lump sum professional expenses, marital quotient, etc.) and deductions (e.g. tax free amount, pension savings, etc.) will only be granted a pro rata basis going forward. For non residents of Belgium it is anticipated that similar legislation will enter into force and a number of tax reductions will disappear.
These measures would be applicable as from assessment year 2018.
Please note that these are general guidelines announced by the federal government. Needless to say, the different measures will need to be reviewed once the details of the draft bill of law will be disclosed. More details are expected in the coming weeks.
