Discover why Belgium is a tax heaven to sell shares.
How are capital gains on shares taxed in Belgium (both in the hands of an individual and of a company) ?
Article 90, 9° of the Belgian Income Tax Code provides for the taxation as miscellaneous incomes:
“The capital gains on shares realized on the occasion of the sale of these shares, out of the exercise of a professional activity, apart from the operations of normal management of one’s wealth” . The capital gains on the sale of shares are tthus axable in Belgium. Taxable, YES but… taxed, no! This results from the sentence : “apart from the operations of normal management of one’s wealth”.
Indeed, the Belgian tax administration considers that the capital gains, in the very great majority of cases, are a sold as part of the normal management of one’s private wealth. That makes of Belgium a true tax heaven : http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/Economy/1.2142587.
If you are a Belgian taxpayer and you own shares in a company, whatever the location its statutory seat, when you sell yours shares, you don’t have to pay any taxes on the sale price.
How are capital gains taxed in the hands of a company?
When companies sell shares that it owns in another company, there is in principle no taxation on the capital gains realized if certains conditions are fullfilled (see the Belgian “RDT” regime). Losses on the sale of those shares are not tax-deductible either (article 198, §1er, 7°, CIR).
