News from Panis

Cash withdrawals of salary prohibited in future

In its action plan against fraud, the Belgian Government wants to prohibit the cash payment of salaries in future.

There is yet no clarity when this new measure will enter into force.

Cash payments exceeding 5.000 EUR prohibited

By law of 29th March 2012 cash payments for goods and services are restricted to 5.000 EUR.
Violations to this law will have to be reported immediately to the Belgium Financial Intelligence Processing Unit.

It is the intention of the authorities to restrict cash payments to maximum 3.000 EUR as from 1st of January 2014.

Invalid intra community VAT numbers penalized

Belgian companies can realize intra community deliveries of goods and services without charging VAT to their clients.

New tax measure on the private use of company cars

Directors/managers and employees who use a company car for private purposes, have to pay taxes on the benefit in kind.

From now on, the valuation of the benefit in kind would be based on the catalogue price of the car multiplied by a CO2-coefficient and a ratio 6/7.

The catalogue price would be the invoice price including the price of all car options and VAT, without discount.

New tax measures from 1/01/2012 onwards

Various new tax measures will be introduced from 1st of January 2012 onwards.

Although they still have to be adopted by legislation and the application modalities and the final amounts still need to be fixed, Panis herewith wants to outline the proposed measures.


Withholding tax

Interest and dividend income, that is currently subject to a 15% withholding tax rate (e.g.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Transformation of bearer shares into registered shares taxed from 1/1/2012 onwards

One of the very recent budget measures of the new government includes a tax which will be levied on the transformation of beares shares into registered shares.

As from 1/1/2012 onwards the tax will amount to 1% of the share value. In 2013 the levy will increase to 2%. Depending on the share value this could represent a considerable nominal amount.

Therefore, it can be advisable to transform the bearer shares into registered shares still in 2011.

Italian VAT numbers might not be valid

The Italian government has been reorganizing its internal VAT legislation. It cancelled some Italian VAT numbers retroactively. Also several Italian companies faced the cancellation of their VAT number without a prior notice from the tax authorities.

This situation might cause a problem to every company that is selling to Italian clients.

Belgian government sentenced in HSBC case

Belgian government has been recently sentenced by Court in the HSBC case, for not making their information files available for viewing by the people who received a questionnaire from the tax authorities.

The time limit to answer the questionnaire remains 1 month, but the people must first get the opportunity to view their files.

During the coming weeks, the tax authorities will send new letters regarding this matter.

Meet Panis Dubai in Antwerp

Our partner from Panis Dubai will visit Antwerp to present some sessions about the start-up of a company in Dubai and other relevant information.

If you would like to attend these meetings, please contact Panis.

Compensation of receivables and payables occurs automatically

By civil law, the outstanding receivables and payables between two parties are compensated automatically to the extent of the smallest amount. Law considers payment as effective, even if there is no physical transfer of funds.

Compensation is not possible in the case that the accounts are pledged to banks or other third parties.

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