Capital Markets
Competition & Regulatory
Corporate / M&A
Data Protection & Privacy
Energy & Infrastructure
Employment & Benefits
Family Owned Business & Private Wealth
Investment Management
Litigation & Risk Management
Public & Administrative Law
Real Estate
Restructuring & Insolvency
Tax
Technology & IP
How do you structure your investment vehicle and acquisition with ever-changing national and international legislation? How do you uphold an unblemished reputation and simultaneously maintain an efficient tax structure? How do you monitor day-to-day compliance in an increasingly regulated environment and safeguard your investment return? These questions reflect the importance and relevance of our renowned real estate taxation advice.
Structuring and taxation are our strength. They enable us to anticipate tax pitfalls and integrate tax aspects at all stages of a project, keeping in mind that decisions made, even in the early stages of an investment, can have a significant impact on the profitability. We also advise on all taxation aspects relating to public-private partnerships.
Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important factor in the decisions of investors, companies, consumers, shareholders and policy and law makers. The broadly supported awareness of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) objectives is reflected in many international voluntary standards as well as in an increasing number of European regulations.
Over the past few years, interest organisations are increasingly initiating court cases against various parties in order to mitigate (dangerous) climate change.
On 22 March 2024 the Luxembourg regulator (the CSSF) released its supervisory priorities in the area of sustainable finance.
The anti-hybrid mismatch rules of the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD 2) aim to prevent situations of a double deduction and a deduction without a corresponding inclusion of the income at the level of the recipient resulting from a hybrid mismatch. All EU Member States have implemented ATAD2 in their domestic laws as from 1 January 2019 (for Belgium) or as from 1 January 2020 and 1 January 2022 (for a.o. the Netherlands and Luxembourg).
It is noted that EU Member states can introduce rules that go beyond the minimum standards of the ATAD2 directive. An example of this is the introduction of the ATAD2 documentation requirement in the Netherlands. Following the Dutch ATAD2 documentation requirement, all Dutch taxpayers should have documentation available in their administration that shows the (non-)applicability of the ATAD2 rules.
This first circular from the Luxembourg tax authorities provides clarifications on tax status of a hybrid entity, its taxation rules and obligations in Luxembourg.
Luxembourg is the main jurisdiction in Europe for launching credit funds with a European strategy.
Building upon work conducted for several years on how to adapt the international tax rules to an increasingly digitalised economy, the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework proposes a two-pillar overhaul of the existing system as from 2023/2024. While the main policy features are agreed, detailed model rules and draft multilateral conventions are due to be released over 2022.
Tax directors and their teams can already model the impact, prepare for the additional tax compliance burden and assess opportunities for manageable restructurings to mitigate the increased complexity.
On 25 March, the Luxembourg tax authorities have released guidance in the form of FAQ on the recognition of pre-regime deferred tax assets and liabilities under the Luxembourg Pillar Two rules.
As of today, the updated edition of our book ‘Investing in real estate in the Belgium' is available.
In recent years tax authorities have placed more emphasis on combatting the use of abusive and aggressive tax structures by companies operating across borders, to ensure fair taxation. The EU and OECD have provided tax authorities with various instruments such as the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD) and the Multilateral Instrument. The judgements handed down by the CJEU on the Danish cases have also set an important precedent.
However, since entities with no minimal substance and economic activity are supposedly still used for improper tax purposes, the European Commission recently issued a new proposal (ATAD 3). It is highly recommended that taxpayers already assess the possible impact of the proposal and consider opportunities for strengthening their local footprint and/or restructuring.
In this update, our specialists inform you about relevant current tax developments and trends in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland that have an impact on MNEs.
Recently, the European Parliament (EP) almost unanimously adopted an opinion suggesting changes to the draft anti-shell Directive (ATAD3).
