22/08/18

The due date for the corporate income tax return and the transfer pricing form is approaching: are you in control?

Corporate income tax return

Belgian companies (and non-resident companies) have the yearly obligation to file a Belgian corporate income tax return within the statutory deadline. 

Filing a complete, timely and well-documented tax return is not only important to avoid penalties for not applying the correct tax treatment on a wide variety of expenses (and to ensure that all tax incentives are correctly applied for) but also to avoid unnecessary scrutiny by the Belgian tax authorities.

Following the communication of the Belgian tax authorities, Belgian companies (and foreign companies with a Belgian establishment) with a financial year that ended as from 31 December 2017 up and to 31 March 2018 should file their tax return by 27 September 2018 at the latest

However, Belgian companies with a financial year that ended per 31 March 2018 whereby the General Shareholders meeting approving the annual accounts takes respectively place in August 2018 andSeptember 2018 are granted an additional delay to respectively 1 October 2018 and 31 October 2018Furthermore, non-resident companies with a financial year ended 31 March 2018 also have to file their tax return by 31 October 2018 at the latest.

Individual delays can be requested directly to the Belgian tax authorities. Practice however shows that such individual delays are only granted very rarely and only in case of exceptional occasions (i.e. extra-ordinary events behind the force of anyone, i.e. ‘force majeure’). 

Transfer pricing local form ‘275 LF’

Within the same due date, a transfer pricing local form ‘275 LF’ should be filed by Belgian companies that are part of an international or a Belgian group for which, in the financial year preceding the financial year most recently closed, at least one of the following criteria was exceeded [on the basis of the annual accounts of the company (i.e. not on a consolidated level)]:

  • operating and financial income, excluding non-recurring income, in the sum of EUR 50 million;
  • a balance sheet total of EUR 1 billion;
  • an annual average headcount of 100 full-time equivalent employees.

Whereas for assessment year 2017, only part A and C of the form were to be completed, also part B needs to be completed for assessment year 2018. The filing should in principle be done through MyminfinPro in an XML format.

In case of non-submission, late submission or incomplete submission of any of the form 275 LF concerned, an administrative fine ranging from EUR 1.250,00 to EUR 25.000,00 can be imposed.

More information: Tim Pieters, Director - PwC Belgium - Tel. +32 2 710 93 28

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