Aforementioned extension of the Master file deadline is of importance to each Belgian company or PE involved in cross-border transactions that meets one of the following criteria for the previous financial year: (i) gross revenues (operational & financial) exceed EUR 50 million, (ii) total balance sheet amount exceeds EUR 1 billion, (iii) average FTE exceeds 100. The normal deadline for filing such a Master file was (and will be as of next financial year) at the latest 12 months after the closing of the previous financial year. As read above, currently the deadline for filing the Master file for tax year 2017 (financial year 2016) is extended to 31 March 2018.

Regarding the filing of the Country-by-Country report for tax year 2017 (financial year 2016) the same extension as for the Master file applies. Consequently this means the CbC report is to be filed at the latest on 31 March 2018. This extension is relevant to all Belgian ultimate parent entities or surrogate parent entities of an MNE group that have a gross consolidated group revenue of at least EUR 750 million as reflected in the consolidated financial statements during financial year 2016.

Belgian entities or PE’s involved in cross-border transactions that are part of an MNE group that exceeds the above threshold of EUR 750 million are, under Belgian law, required to file a Country-by-Country notification, for financial years that started on or after 1 January 2016, at the latest at the end of the accounting period. While for financial year 2016 an extension was provided until 30 September 2017, for financial year 2017 (starting on 1 January 2017 or later), the Belgian tax authorities have granted an extension for filing the CbC notification until 31 March 2018.

Furthermore, the tax authorities have confirmed that the Master file and the CbC report are to be submitted through MyMinfinPro, using the applications which will be made available in the near future. However, in order to submit these files, several administrative and registration procedure steps need to be performed and a legal representative needs to be selected. Therefore, please bear in mind that submitting mentioned files will require a fair amount of time and effort and thus it is advised to start the required processes sooner rather than later.

Following the above, there are some other administrative tolerances which apply with regards to the filing of the local file form (normally to be filed with the corporate tax return) and the Country-by-Country notification (normally to be filed no later than the closing date of the group reporting period) for reporting periods ending at the latest on 30 December 2017. These forms are, next to filing through MyMinfinPro as an XML file, still allowed to be filed by email as a signed PDF file to BEPS13@minfin.fed.be.

In the case of an enterprise without a legal representative in Belgium, the Belgian tax authorities foresee an administrative tolerance where all Transfer Pricing related documents may be submitted as a signed PDF file or as an XML file via an email to BEPS13@minfin.fed.be. It is required that this email explicitly contains a message explaining that the enterprise does not have a legal representative in Belgium and that you are using the administrative tolerance for filing the documents by email.

Given the above requirements, rules and tolerances, the T/A Economics team is able to assist you in meeting these filing requirements and guide you through the necessary administrative steps.

Andy Neuteleers - Partner T/A Economics