GOAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK
The Belgian law regarding AEOI has been approved by Parliament on 10 December 2015.
AEOI is an OECD initiative to combat cross-border tax evasion. Jurisdictions (countries) can participate in AEOI by signing a multilateral Competent Authority agreement (mCAA) with other participating countries.
By the end of June 2015, around 100 jurisdictions, including all EU member states, had signed up to AEOI. Implementation will take place in two phases:
- for 60 or so countries (including the EU member states, Jersey and the Cayman Islands), AEOI will take effect on 1 January 2016, with the first reporting taking place in September 2017
- for other participating countries (e.g. Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore), this will happen on 1 January 2017, with the first reporting taking place in September 2018
AEOI requires all financial institutions in Belgium to check if their account holders are tax resident in other AEOI countries. If so, the bank has to report these account holders to the FPS Finance, who will then pass on this information to the tax authorities for the country in which the account holder is resident for tax purposes.