The Belgian tax authorities have announced plans to pay special attention to the tax returns of residents who have bank accounts abroad.
The measure is one of a set of priorities announced which involve checking up on matters which taxpayers are supposed to declare voluntarily, whether individuals or businesses. Others include payments received from abroad, payments claimed as alimony or child support, income from properties rented out for professional ends and failing to submit a tax declaration.
The Brussels Times reports that for businesses, special attention will be paid to sums claimed as business expenses, income from abroad, sizeable one-time claims for exceptional costs, creation of a holding company with increase or reduction of capital, and in general, company accounts which show anomalies when compared to other similar businesses in the same sector.
Belgian tax authorities suspect that around half of all residents who are subject to the Belgian tax regime and have a foreign bank account have not declared it, based on a previous audit in which it was found that of 364,000 account holders, some 200,000 had not declared it with huge loss in revenue for the Belgian government.
