Belgium – AEA

Tag: Belgium

New Brussels International Business Court (BIBC)

Napisane przez AEA - EAL w dniu 2018-08-10. Opublikowano w Articles.

August 10, 2018

Sabine Perquy-Forke

On Jun 26th 2018, the new coming Brussels International Business Court (BIBC) has been presented by the Belgian Minister of Justice and other very prominent speakers at the town hall in Brussels. The BIBC, which should be operational by January 1st 2020, aims to be a real alternative to the existing dispute resolution methods in the international B2B sector.
The most important characteristics to be pointed out are:
(1) the combination of important advantages known from the arbitration procedure (based on the UNCITRAL Model Law, agreement of the parties necessary, 2 specialised lay judges, no appeal, …) with several advantages from the public court procedure (State Court chaired by a professional magistrate, lesser cost of procedure, ‘pourvoi en cassation’ possible before the Supreme Court, …) and
(2) the language: the BIBC will be the first and only English speaking state court in Belgium.
This combination bears advantages and disadvantages depending on the concrete dispute:
– as any judgement rendered by a Belgian state court, the enforcement will be simplified within the EU thanks to the existing regulations, but more complicated outside the EU as the 1958 New York Convention will not be applicable,
– contrary to arbitration, there will be no confidentiality of procedure and judgement nor any active influence by the parties on the identity of the judges who will hear the dispute.
Similar courts are already existing or in project in other important international places such as UK, NL, FR, Singapore, Dubai. Given the central geographical place of Brussels, known as international crossroads of culture and business, heart of the EU, the creation of a specialised English-speaking court with jurisdiction over international commercial disputes is a logic response to a real need.

Decrease in Belgian corporate tax rates

Napisane przez AEA - EAL w dniu 2018-02-25. Opublikowano w Articles.

February 25, 2018

Ph.D. Elisabeth Hoffmann

The new Belgian corporate income tax reform was recently enacted by the law of 25 December 2017 (hereafter: “Law”), as published in the Belgian State Gazette of 27 December 2017. As from tax assessment year 2019 (i.e. income 2018 if the accounting year matches the calendar year), the Law decreases the standard corporate income tax rate from 33.99% to 29.58%.For small and medium-sized enterprises (hereafter: “SMEs”) a reduced corporate income tax rate of 20.40% will be applicable with respect to the first tranche of EUR 100,000. Any taxable income exceeding EUR 100,000 will be subject to the standard corporate income tax rate of 29.58%. This reduced tax rate of 20, 40% on the first tranche of EUR 100,000 is however subject to the condition that a minimum annual remuneration is paid to at least one of the company’s directors. The annual remuneration should at least be EUR 45,000 (if the company’s taxable base exceeds EUR 45,000) or an amount equal to the company’s taxable base (if the company’s taxable base is below EUR 45,000). The minimum remuneration is not required during the first four years for SMEs in order to benefit from the reduced corporate income tax rate. As from tax assessment year 2021 (i.e. income 2020 if the accounting year matches the calendar year), the standard corporate income tax rate will be further reduced to 25%. For SMEs, the reduced tax rate will be further reduced to 20% on the first tranche of EUR 100,000, provided the above- mentioned minimum annual remuneration is paid to at least one of the company’s directors.