by Biene Ongenaert
Submission of the transfer pricing notification form will be simpler!
Companies required to submit an annual CbC (Country-by-Country) notification form now only have to do that when a change is made. For many businesses, this therefore means the end of a yearly administrative burden.
On 1 January 2016, the transfer pricing documentation obligation was introduced in Belgium. This means that companies in Belgium are required by law to systematically record inter-company transactions. The documentation obligation is threefold and comprises a country-by-country report (CbC report), a master file and a local file.
A multinational group is obliged to prepare a CbC report when the group has a gross consolidated group revenue of at least 750 million Euros. In principle, this report should only be prepared by the ultimate parent entity of the group. The other entities of the group are only required to inform the tax authorities of the identity of the parent entity that has submitted the CbC Report by means of a CbC notification form.
Today this is rigorously enforced in Belgium. Every Belgian entity of the multinational group therefore also has to submit the CbC notification form annually. In practice, the consequence of this is that the majority of these companies submit a notification form containing the same information every year. After all, the identity of the ultimate parent entity doesn't often change. Fortunately, an end to this administrative burden is now in sight!
That is because last week a legislative amendment was published which means that the Belgian group entity only has to submit a notification form when the information on the form differs from the information on the previous form that was submitted. This is therefore only when the identity of the parent entity or the group's reporting period changes. This legislative amendment applies to reporting periods that end on 31 December 2019 or later. As Belgium is one of the few countries in which annual submission of the CbC notification form was enforced, this is a welcome relaxation.
If you have any questions about this legislation or about transfer pricing documentation in general, please don't hesitate to contact your account manager or one of our specialists at contact@vdl.be.
Biene Ongenaert
Senior Advisor Legal biene.ongenaert@vdl.be
Disclaimer
In our opinions, we rely on current legislation, interpretations and legal doctrine. This does not prevent the administration from disputing them or from changing existing interpretations.
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