New ways to carving-out and integrating your business in Belgium not always tax neutral
In 2023, new ways of performing carve-out and integrating your business became possible from a legal perspective. Meanwhile the tax law has also been adapted to enable you to perform these new ways of reorganising your group structure tax-free. Nevertheless, still some problems remain and sufficient attention should be paid to the tax consequences of
Tax and Legal aspects of ESG in an M&A context – The deal Execution phase
In previous articles, we zoomed in on the importance of managing carefully the ESG (or at large “Sustainability”) hard and soft laws during the pre-deal phase of the M&A process. It was demonstrated that dealing/understanding the sustainability challenges during both the deal sourcing as well as the due diligence phase, actually contributes ultimately to
Possible important amendments to the stock option legislation and the introduction of a specific tax regime for free shares
A government proposal regarding new legislation with respect to stock options and stock plans was announced in the Belgian press last week (cf. please find the link to the entire article). It is however important to note that no texts are currently available and that it is currently not certain whether this proposal will eventually be
Possible important amendments to the stock option legislation and the introduction of a specific tax regime for free shares
A government proposal regarding new legislation with respect to stock options and stock plans was announced in the Belgian press last week. Below you can find a short overview of the proposed changes with some initial high-level reflections. It is however important to note that no texts are currently available and that it is currently
Tax and legal aspects of ESG in an M&A context – pre-deal phase
With the structural climate/sanitary reality and economic challenges, ESG (Environmental/Ecological, Social/Sustainable and Governance) has grown in importance for all stakeholders of an enterprise. So it’s no surprise that ESG has also become a hot topic in M&A projects and that Tax and Legal related ESG topics should be included in every step of a deal
Restructuring your family enterprise within 3 years after a gift or inheritance
A recent preliminary decision (October 2022) of the Flemish tax authorities was rendered on the question whether a full demerger of a family enterprise would impact the qualification of a family enterprise for gift tax purposes. The facts: an active family enterprise (holding) was donated by the parents /donors – with certain control mechanisms –
Selling your company with excess cash to a third party: be aware of possible taxation in the hands as a private shareholder/individual
When Belgian private individuals envisage selling shares in a cash-rich company, a buyer should review whether this cash would not give rise to potential tax issues for him. On 6 September 2022, the Court of Appeal of Antwerp confirmed the reclassification of capital gains on shares into taxable dividend income, based on the general anti-abuse
Limitation of excess DRD after merger is in line with Parent-Subsidiary Directive
On 20 October 2022, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rendered its judgment in the “Allianz Benelux” case relating to the limitation of excess dividends-received deduction (DRD) of Belgian companies that are involved in a tax-neutral merger. A dividend received by a Belgian company is in principle taxable income. But if certain conditions are met
