Belgian Government Reaps Less Than EUR500 Million From Tax Amnesty

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

21 February 2005

Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders announced last week that the country’s tax amnesty scheme reaped just under EUR500 million in additional tax revenues last year, although disappointingly for the tax authorities, the figure was far below the government’s initial estimates.

Under the scheme, touted by the government as a last chance to declare foreign assets before the introduction of the European Union's Savings Tax Directive in July 2005, Belgians could repatriate undeclared money and face a penalty of either 6% or 9%, depending on how they reinvested the funds.

While the government had originally estimated that the amnesty would yield EUR850 million for the budget by the end of 2004, the final tally stood at EUR496 million – 80% of which came in a last minute rush during December.

According to estimates, the total amount held abroad by Belgians out of reach of the taxman totals EUR160 billion, of which just 5.7 billion has been repatriated.

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