Unless a company pays its Belgian corporate income taxes due by means of timely advance tax payments during the financial year concerned, a surcharge is due on the final amount of Belgian corporate income tax due upon assessment.
If advance payments are made, credits – which can be offset against the surcharge – are granted at fixed percentages, depending on the timing of payment: the sooner the advance tax payment is made, the higher the tax credit. If the surcharge is higher than the credit for a given assessment year, the balance will always be due.
There are four due dates for making advance tax payments during each financial year. Advance tax payments can be made in quarterly installments no later than the 10th day of the fourth, seventh and tenth month of the financial year and the 20th day of the last month of the financial year.
For assessment year 2020, the global surcharge is 6,75% (as was the case for assessment year 2019).
What is new?
As from 1 January 2019, the bank account number to transfer advance tax payments to has changed. As far as advance tax payments from assessment year 2020 onwards are concerned, all payments have to be transferred to a bank account with IBAN number BE61 6792 0022 9117 (BIC: PCHQ BEBB). Payments in relation to assessment year 2019 still have to be made using the bank account number that was used in the past.
On top, as from that same date, taxpayers in principle have to access a specific module on the MyMinFin platform (which requires a Belgian e-ID or a specific login) in order to have the structured communication generated that must be used when making advance tax payments. The same goes for requests for refund or transfer of advance tax payments made to a subsequent assessment year.
Only in exceptional cases, the structured communication can still be requested by contacting the Service for Advance Tax Payments.
In practice
The new module on the MyMinFin platform is currently not yet operational. Taxpayers can therefore still generate the structured communication in a similar way as was done in the past (via a publicly available module on the Belgian tax authorities’ website).
Based on our contacts with the Service for Advance Tax Payments, the new module will only go live end of March/beginning of April 2019 (at the earliest).
How can we help?
Our experts are ready to assist you (i) in computing and optimizing the advance tax payments to be made for assessment year 2020 (also taking into account the further roll-out of the tax reform) and/or (ii) in providing further guidance on how to access/use the specific module on the MyMinFin platform (once operational).
Just contact your regular contact person. He/she will be happy to support you or refer you to one of our specialists if needed.
