What happened with the tax penalty of 5%?

In a previous article we already discussed the tax penalty of 5% for corporations who don’t pay the minimum of 45.000 euro to at least one of their managers. This measure was applicable since 1 January 2018. The goal of this measure was to avoid that self-employed allocate their activities in corporations to avoid taxes.

However, experts criticized that this measure was in fact a double sanctions for SME’s. A SME’s who didn’t payed the minimum remuneration of 45.000 was not only excluded from the advantageous tariff (20% on the first 100.000) but also were obliged to pay an extra tax of 5%. The measure was also very complex. Therefore, has the legislators decided to abolish this tax penalty immediately.

Sources (Dutch): IAB Studiedienst, Delbo advocaten

How to calculate the exemption of social liabilities in 2019?

Because of the introduction of unification of servants and workers, the total costs for some companies increased significantly. Therefore, the government introduced the exemption of social liabilities on 1st of January 2019. This also applies for employers who were not negatively influenced by the unification law.

How will this exemption be calculated? It is calculated as three weeks’ worth of remuneration per year of service. This amount is limited up to 100% of the remuneration on the first scale of €1.500, 30% of the second scale until €2.600 and does not apply to remunerations above €2.600. On top of this, starting from the 21st year of service, the number of additional weeks will be limited to one. This exemption will be spread over 5 years with 80% in the first year and 20% in the remaining years. The exemption can only be applied if the employee enters his/hers 6th year of service.

To be taken into consideration for this exemption, the employers has to hold a normative list of his employees and have a positive taxable result.

Source: Fiscal pro, number 4 (2019)

VAT-regulations for vouchers changed from 1/1/2019

The regulations concerning vouchers has become a national law since 1/1/2019. This only concerns vouchers that give notification of conditions and vouchers that can be exchanged for a delivery of services or good, thus it does not include discount coupons.

For so-called single vouchers, or vouchers where the VAT is already known, the VAT is payable from the moment the voucher is made up. For instance a voucher that you can redeem for a beverage basket. Hereby, you already known the VAT (21%) beforehand. In case the voucher is not redeemed within the agreed period, the VAT cannot be recovered.

In case of multiple use, or vouchers where the VAT amount is not known beforehand, the VAT is payable when the voucher is redeemed. For instance, a voucher for a restaurant visit. When you make up the voucher you don’t know whether the person will use it for beverages (21%) or for meals (12%). In case of non-use of the multiple vouchers, there will be no VAT since the VAT is only calculated when redeemed.

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Allocating advantages from offshore? Pay attention!

Many international corporations allocate their so-called RSU’s to their Belgian employees. A RSU, or restricted stock unit, is a free share that will be distributed definitely later. For instance, after reaching a certain objective. Because RSU’s are only definite somewhere in the future, the employee was only obliged to take it into account in his personal taxes in the year that it became definite.

Also, since there were not special regulations concerning these RSU’s, corporates were not obliged to hold a fiche. With the introduction of a new KB, this will no longer be the case. In addition, the NOSS has also changed his definition of remuneration. This means that these RSU’s are now also subject to NOSS.