Last week the Belgian parliament voted an amendment to the Belgian Income Tax Code with respect to the reporting obligation of foreign bank accounts by Belgian individuals at the central contact point (“centraal aanspreekpunt” in Dutch/”point de contact central” in French) of the Belgian National Bank.
As from the first of November 2014 the Belgian tax administration will send out letters to all the taxpayers who declared in their personal income tax return of assessment year 2012, 2013 or 2014 that they have a foreign bank account. In those letters the tax authorities will ask the taxpayer to provide the central contact point of the Belgian National Bank with the following information with respect to their foreign bank account(s): bank account number, name of the financial institution and country where the bank account is opened.
The central contact point already has information regarding Belgian bank accounts, provided by Belgian banks. It does however not have information with respect to the amounts of the deposits on the bank accounts and the transactions. As from the first of May 2014 the Belgian tax authorities are allowed to consult this database under certain strict conditions (e.g. indication of fraud).
As from 31 March 2015 certain contracts need to be reported at the central contact point as well. The contracts in scope are contracts regarding credits and loans (mortgages, consumer credits, loans, leasing contracts, investment contracts,…). Note that in this respect life insurance contracts are not in scope.
