Reporting obligation for tax havens now expanded to Malta and Turkey

Tax havens

The special reporting obligation applies to countries that fail to effectively or substantially implement standards for the exchange of information. The OECD evaluates each country on an individual basis. A country is identified as compliant, largely compliant, partially compliant or non-compliant. Before 1 September, the term ‘tax haven’ applied solely to non-compliant countries. According to the authorities’ new position, this category now also includes partially compliant countries. This means the special reporting obligation has been expanded to countries such as Turkey and Malta.

For OECD to identify a country as a tax haven, there are two conditions to be fulfilled:

• The country is non-compliant or partially compliant
• The country has no corporate income tax or a nominal CIT rate of lower than 10 percent

Reporting obligation conditions

The reporting obligation applies to payments by Belgian companies under the following conditions only:

• The payments were made, either directly or indirectly, to persons or permanent establishments located in tax havens
• AND the total value of these payments during the taxable period exceeds EUR 100,000

If both these conditions apply, you must report the payments using form 275F. You must subsequently include this form in your corporate or non-resident tax return. Failure to file a special report may incur an administrative penalty.