Belgium compulsory electronic VAT return filings

The Belgian tax office has confirmed that it is moving all taxable persons to electronic Belgium VAT filings over the next year.

All companies will have to submit their monthly or quarterly VAT returns through the online BizTax portal of the Ministry of Finance.  There will be exemptions for any companies which can demonstrate a lack of access to the necessary technology.  This follows a recent UK online VAT filings case where the UK’s HMRC was blocked from compelling all firms to use online returns.

Resident Belgian companies will have to submit online this year, 2014.  However, non-resident VAT traders will only have to commence electronic declarations from the start of 2015.

Most tax payers file monthly in Belgian. Smaller entrepreneurs can file quarterly.  The Belgian VAT threshold for monthly returns was recently increased to help reduce the administrative burden.  Quarterly VAT returns do though require a prepayment of VAT based on the prior taxable supplies.