Tax Treaty Case Law around the Globe 2021
1. Aufl. 2022
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S. 233Belgium: Increased Attention to Taxpayer Rights in MAPs in Belgian Case Law
Luc De Broe/Caroline Kempeneers
S. 234I. Introduction
The Belgian tax authorities, as with many other national tax administrations, refuse to give the taxpayer access to the correspondence and documentation of a mutual agreement procedure (MAP) both during and after the negotiations with the tax authorities of the other contracting state.
Such automatic refusal is clearly not contributing to the transparency of government decisions and is questionable from a legal perspective (i.a. from a constitutional perspective as Article 32 of the Belgian Constitution safeguards the right to access to administrative documents such as tax files).
The Belgian Council of State made it very clear that such refusal cannot be issued systematically. On the contrary, such a decision should be sufficiently motivated and not in generic terms but on a case-by-case basis. In addition, the Belgian Supreme Court handed down a judgment holding a contra conventionem MAP decision non-binding and inapplicable. It is clear that taxpayer rights are getting more – well deserved – attention in recent Belgian case law.