Our contribution in Fiscale Actualiteit on the implementation of DAC 7 into Belgian legislation

We are excited to see that Fiscale Actualiteit has published our article on the implementation of the DAC 7 directive into Belgian legislation on the front page of Fiscale Actualiteit no. 2023/23, p 1, week 29 june - 5 july 2023. 

In this article, we discuss the strengthening of the cooperation between tax administrations within the EU and zoom in on the new legal framework for joint audits in particular. This brings some important changes to the tax procedure, for example, it is now possible for foreign officials to actively participate in an investigation conducted by the Belgian administration. During joint audits, foreign tax officials will be able to inspect documents and interrogate taxpayers on Belgian territory and vice versa. As a result of this development, joint audits will gain in importance. This can have the benefit for MNE that they would only have to deal with one single audit team to explain their cross-border transactions, leading to a consensus on the facts and circumstances between the involved authorities. The purpose of these joint audits is indeed  the avoidance of double/multiple taxation. Unfortunately this purpose is not enshrined in the legal provisions and corresponding downward adjustments are not mandatory either. Hence, in practice there is also an upward trend of mutual agreement procedures aiming at resolving double taxation (e.g. https://www.oecd.org/tax/beps/beps-actions/action14/).