Belgium asked to recover $760 million in illegal tax breaks
The beneficiaries included Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, BP Plc, BASF SE, Proximus SA, Atlas Copco AB, Wabco Holdings, and Celio France SAS.
proximus SE
This estimate does not include any benefits associated with a successful appeal of the decision, nor does it reflect guidance we expect to receive from the Belgian government on the methodology or timing of the recovery of prior tax benefits.
The European Commission told Belgium to recoup all these companies’ unpaid taxes, stating that excess-profit verdicts allowed corporations to get as much as 90% of their tax reduced.
“Such schemes put smaller competitors at an unfair disadvantage”, the European Commission’s Margrethe Vestager, said in a statement. And it went to great lengths to note that the majority of the companies who benefited from the scheme were based in Europe.
Preliminary information shows that the Commission received 69 submissions from professional associations and law firms, 54 responses from businesses who pay corporate tax, and 16 from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) since the public consultation process opened on October 8th. Such back taxes would not affect Belgium’s structural deficit, he said.
Tax experts warned that the EU’s decision would create uncertainty for corporate directors, and risked driving investment away from Belgium.
“The advanced tax ruling system provides legal certainty for investors”, it also said.
European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager addresses a press conference on Belgium’s excess profit tax scheme at the European Commission in Brussels on Monday.
Officials said this distorted the EU’s single market; some journalists asked whether this means Belgium should be considered a tax haven. “Then you don’t need special tricks, you know it is acceptable for the European Commission“, Mr. De Neef said.
A spokeswoman for AB InBev said that even though the company was “disappointed by this decision, we remain confident that our tax rulings are in full compliance with the European Union jurisprudence and that we have always complied with Belgian and worldwide tax provisions”. On Monday, she denied that the latest ruling was part of a balancing act.
The commission did not say which companies are involved but described them as “mainly European companies”.
