Both for companies as individuals, the bank account number for prepayments changes in tax year 2020 (2019): BE61 6792 0022 9117 from ‘Inningscentrum – Dienst Voorafbetalingen, Koning Albert II-laan 33, bus 42, 1030 Schaarbeek’.

The structured communication for natural individuals and self-employed (who were using their national number for identification of their prepayments) will be changed and will be noted on the payment invitations.

There is a transition measurement for companies were the fiscal years doesn’t coincides with the calendar year and for companies were the remaining days of fiscal year 2019 are after the 31st of December 2018.

The payments made after this date, but still before tax year 2019, must be payed on the existing account: BE20 6792 0023 3056 – ‘Dienst Voorafbetalingen- vennootschappen’. These companies need to make their first payment on the new bank account number starting from tax year 2020.

If you want to know more, feel free to ask one of our staff members or leave a comment.

Entrepreneurs and professionals (cfr. individual tax payers) and all types of companies (cfr. corporate tax payers) have to make tax prepayments . Start-up companies (natural persons and small companies) are exempt during their first three years of business.

A tax increase is applied when no or insufficient tax prepayments. The purpose of the tax increase is to engage the taxpayer to pay most of the tax liability in the period in which the taxable income is generated instead of delaying the payment until receipt of the tax bill.

Percentage of the tax increase for income year 2016 – fiscal year 2017 is 1.125% (the same as last year).

Internal legislation has been amended  in view the base rate, used to determine the tax increase, never to be less than 1%. Accordingly, the tax increase percentage will automatically be set at at least 2.25% as of 01/01/2017 (fiscal year 2018).

As of the fiscal year 2018 no the tax increase will apply when the calculated tax increase is lower than 0.5% of the tax on which it is calculated or if the amount due is less than 50 euros (currently it is 1% or 25 euros).

Reminder:

Companies, self-employed and professionals whom financial year ends on December 31, need to proceed with the tax prepayment for the fourth quarter of income year 2016 at the latest by December 20ste. Tax prepayments received after the due date by the ‘Tax Office for Prepayments’ are automatically forward to the next period (i.e. first quarter of 2017). Special rules apply to companies whom fiscal year does not coincide with the calendar year and for companies with a financial year of less than 12 months.

 

Reducing social contribution payments

The request to reduce the payment of social contributions can be made now for one, two or three calendar years in one and the same application form. Until now the request could only be filed per calendar year.

The requirement of providing objective proof to justify the reduction remains unchanged and should be provided for every year for which a reduction is requested.

An entrepreneur will however continue to submit annual requests because he usually will not be able to provide objective proof for the reduction of income over several years.

Mandates without payment entitlement can request the reduction of the provisional social contributions for three consecutive years on the basis of the report of the General Meeting or a copy of the Corporate Statutes.

 

No regularization after retirement

As of 2015 an interim contribution is first paid and regularized  two years later with a supplement or recovery as a result.

Now, when you retire and completely stop your self-employment activities, you can ask to waive the regularization under specific conditions.

Waiving the regularization is only interesting in case the balance for the entire period is negative. As the waiving will cancel both any extra payment due or any possible refund.