Belgium – New Transparency Tax

In August 2015, the Belgian legislator adopted a Programme Act providing a transparency tax (Cayman Tax).
The law is aimed, on one side, at trusts and trust-like arrangements without legal personality and, on the other side, at foundations and companies that are either not subject to tax or are subject to an income tax which represents less than 15% of their taxable income.

In particular, the Cayman Tax will be applied to Belgian resident founders or to third party beneficiaries (if the founders can prove that the income received by the legal arrangement has been paid or allocated to a third-party beneficiary) of entities established out the European Economic Area (EEA) and, exceptionally,to some entities based in that Area (as the Liechtenstein arrangements of the ‘Anstalt’ and the ‘Stiftung’ as well as the ‘Société de Gestion de Patrimoine familiale (SPF)’ of Luxembourg).

It is clear that legislation of all Countries has now the aim of increasing a total fiscal transparency