Belgium: Tax

Belgian family offices and fund-of-funds utilizing the Privak regime face unique challenges when investing through Luxembourg structures, particularly regarding tax-neutral status requirements and participation exemption conditions. The look-through treatment of transparent entities like SCSps can create complications with underlying assets, prompting the need for alternative structuring solutions that maintain compliance while accommodating diverse investor bases.

The Belgian Constitutional Court has ruled on the temporal scope of a new tax regime that presumes good faith for first-time infringements, determining whether taxpayers involved in disputes over assessments issued before the law's effective date can benefit from more lenient treatment. The decision addresses three key challenges: the temporal limitation of the new rules, the exclusion of good-faith presumption for ex officio assessments, and the absence of an equivalent regime for VAT.

The European Commission has unveiled its most comprehensive EU direct tax framework review to date, shifting policy focus from anti-avoidance measures toward competitiveness and simplification. The Tax Simplification Package promises EUR8 billion in annual savings through sweeping changes to withholding taxes, dividend taxation, interest limitation rules, and cross-border structures. These reforms will fundamentally reshape how businesses structure their European operations, requiring careful analysis of ex