A new tax on accounts
On 4 November last year, the government surprised everyone by publishing a notice in the Moniteur concerning the introduction of an annual tax on securities accounts. It was important to take taxpayers by surprise.
Programme law
On 2 November 2020, the Council of Ministers approved a draft law introducing an annual tax on securities accounts. This draft bill still had to go through a whole legislative process, but by publishing the notice in the Moniteur, the government could already set the date of entry into force of the measure at 30 October 2020.
This announcement principle has already been used in the past for tax increases. In this way, the government avoids the situation where, once more or less informed of the contours of the new law, some taxpayers manage to evade the tax. On the other hand, taxpayers will not be able to invoke the fact that the measure is retroactive.
Terms and conditions
The annual tax will be levied on all securities accounts held by natural persons (residents and non-residents), as well as on all securities accounts held by legal entities subject to corporate income tax, legal entity tax or non-resident tax.
Universities and trade unions, for example, may therefore also be liable for this tax.
The taxable base of the tax is the average value of the taxable financial instruments held on the securities account. The tax is only due if the average value exceeds EUR 1,000,000.
If this amount of 1,000,000 euros is reached, a tax of 0.15% is due from the outset on 1,000,000 euros. Beyond that, the rate is 10%.
Anti-abuse provisions
The programme law will also contain provisions that should prevent the taxpayer from evading taxes through certain tricks.
The tax authorities will thus be able to ignore any split of a securities account, whereby securities are moved to one or more accounts with the same financial intermediary or to accounts with another financial intermediary with a view to preventing the total value of the securities in an account from exceeding one million euros.
The same will apply in the case of the opening of securities accounts by which securities are allocated between accounts with the same or another financial intermediary.
If, again with the intention of evading tax, shares, bonds or other taxable financial instruments are converted into registered securities (so that they are no longer held in a securities account), the tax authorities may also disregard this transaction.
Finally, the tax authorities will ensure that the securities account is not placed in a foreign legal entity which transfers the securities to a foreign securities account or in a fund with registered units.
The legislator considers that in these cases there is a presumption of tax evasion. It is, however, always possible to prove that the transaction (conversion, split, transfer abroad, etc.) had another motive.
Entry into force
By announcing now that the new tax will be applicable retroactively to October 30, 2020, the government wants to avoid the anticipatory effects that would allow taxpayers to avoid the tax.
The date of October 30, 2020 has been chosen because it is the date "on which this tax was widely covered by the media.
Old wine in a new bottle?
Almost exactly one year before the tax was announced, the Constitutional Court cancelled the tax on securities accounts introduced in 2018.
This old tax was levied on securities accounts (held in Belgium or abroad) and amounted to 0.15% of the average value of the taxable financial instruments held on these securities accounts provided that this value was equal to or greater than 500,000 euros.
A whole series of "securities" were exempt from the tax, such as real estate certificates, commercial paper, registered shares, etc.
At the time, the Constitutional Court had annulled this tax on securities accounts for two reasons. Firstly, because certain investments (such as derivative financial instruments) were not taken into account (without any objective and well-founded reason) and because foreign banks had to appoint a representative in Belgium responsible for collecting the tax (which constituted an obstacle to the access of these banks to the Belgian financial market).
The Minister of Finance assured that these problems would be solved with the new programme law. Introducing a new tax on securities accounts is therefore a bit like putting old wine in a new bottle. It remains to be seen whether the new bottle will be less corked than the old one...
Source: General Administration Strategic Expertise and Support. - Regulatory Department. - Notice relating to the introduction of an annual tax on securities accounts, M.B., 4 November 2020.
