Remember your reporting obligation for payments to tax havens

Obligation to declare

With regard to Belgian companies’ reporting obligation for payments, two (cumulative) conditions apply:

• The payments must be made, either directly or indirectly, to persons or permanent establishments located in tax havens, or to bank accounts held by such persons or by credit institutions located in a tax haven;

and

• The total value of these payments during the taxable period exceeds EUR 100,000.

Note that the total value is not calculated per individual country or beneficiary, but for all countries and beneficiaries taken together. If you made payments of EUR 60,000 to Panama and EUR 50,000 to Turkey during the taxable period, for instance, this will still oblige you to complete form 275 F. 

What is a tax haven? 

A country qualifies as a tax haven if it meets any of the following conditions:

• The Global Forum has designated it as a State that is effectively or substantially non-compliant with the OECD’s standards regarding the exchange of information on request (the so-called OECD list).
• The country appears on the Belgian government’s list of States with zero or low taxation. 
• The country appears on the EU’s list of non-co-operative jurisdictions.

Form 275 F

If your company has made payments to such countries, you must report all qualifying payments using form 275 F. This form must then be submitted along with your company’s corporate tax return or non-resident corporate tax return.

It is highly important that you complete the form correctly. If you fail to do so or to include sufficient information, the tax authorities may refuse the right to deduct these costs.

Do you require further information about the reporting obligation for payments to tax havens? Please don’t hesitate to contact one of our experts.