Update on mandatory Pillar 2 notification requirement in Belgium: do you qualify for the extended deadline?

The Belgian tax administration announced last week that they provide an administrative tolerance for groups of multinational enterprises (MNE) and large-scale domestic groups that will not carry out advance payments in 2024 for the domestic top-up tax or the IIR. These groups may submit their notification for registration in the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE) until 16 September 2024 (included) instead of 13 July 2024.
However, in case these groups wish to carry out tax prepayments in 2024, the filing deadline remains 13 July 2024!

Affected taxpayers should immediately determine whether they want to make Pillar 2 tax prepayments. If not, the group can rely on the extended deadline. 

Please find hereunder the details of the Belgian notification requirement. 

Why is a notification needed?

On 19 December 2023, Belgium implemented the Pillar 2 legislation introducing a minimum effective tax rate of 15% for multinational enterprise groups (MNEs) or large domestic groups with consolidated annual revenues exceeding €750 million. The rules are applicable for financial years commencing on or after December 31, 2023.

In order to be able to comply with those Pillar 2 rules (or so-called GloBE rules), the Belgian companies forming part of a domestic or multinational group that fall in scope of the Pillar 2 legislation, must register at the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen / Banque Carrefour des Entreprises) via a specific notification form. The purpose of this registration is to obtain a new and specific Pillar 2 (tax) identification number to be used for example to make specific Pillar 2 tax prepayments.

Which information must be notified?

The notification form consists of the following 4 parts:

• Part I: MNE Group or large-scale domestic group
  Unique name of the group (i.e., must be different from the one of the Ultimate Parent Entity), fiscal year, address and contact details of the Ultimate Parent Entity.
• Part II: Consolidated Financial Statements
  Type of consolidated financial statements according to GloBE definition, applied accounting standard, currency and publication.
• Part III: Ownership structure
  Overview of the entities that are (an) ultimate parent entity/ies (UPE), intermediate parent entity/ies (IPE), partially-owned parent entity/ies (POPE) and their subsidiaries. For each listed entity, the GLoBE status must also be indicated (this GloBE status in aligned with the information that will have to be submitted in the GloBE Information Return).
• Part IV: Contact details of the entity that performs the notification.

Who must do the notification?

To know which group entity must file the notification form, the following rules are foreseen:

• If there is only one Belgian Ultimate Parent Entity (UPE) => notification to be done by this Belgian UPE. 
• If there is more than one Belgian UPE => notification to be done by only one UPE that is appointed by the other UPE’s.
• If there is no Belgian UPE, but only one Belgian Constituent Entity => notification to be done by this Belgian entity. 
• If there is no Belgian UPE, but several Belgian Constituent Entities => notification to be done by only one Belgian entity which is appointed by the others.

For the appointment of an entity, a specific mandate form has been published on the website of the Belgian tax administration.

By when must the notification be completed?

In principle, the notification must be made no later than 30 days after the start of the fiscal year for which the multinational or large domestic group enters into the scope of the Pillar 2 legislation. For example, if the first fiscal year starts on 1 January 2025, the notification has to be done by 30 January 2025 at the latest.

As most companies could already be subject to the Pillar 2 legislation since 1 January 2024, it is foreseen that the notification will need to happen before 13 July 2024 (extended to 15 July 2024 given the deadline expires in a weekend) by the Belgian companies which financial year started on or after 1 January 2024. 

However, the Belgian tax administration announced on 2 July 2024 that they provide an administrative tolerance for MNE groups and large-scale domestic groups that will not carry out advance payments in 2024 for the domestic top-up tax or the IIR. These groups may submit their notification for registration in the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE) until 16 September 2024 (included).

Note that this administrative tolerance does not apply to MNE groups and large-scale domestic groups who wish to carry out tax prepayments in 2024. For those companies the filing deadline remains 13 July 2024! 

How must a company fulfill this obligation?

The specific notification form must be prepared via the xml-generator tool that is available on the website of the Belgian tax administration. Once the information is completed, the generated xml file must be submitted on the MyMinFin platform of the company through a new specific Pillar 2 section (same procedure as for the TP BEPS13 forms). Upon valid notification, the Belgian tax administration will register the group with the Belgian Commercial Register. The enterprise number for the group is then sent by e-mail to the entity that notified the group.

How can Grant Thornton help your company to fulfill the notification obligation?

Even though the deadline to fulfill the notification requirement is extended in case you don’t want to perform any Pillar 2 tax prepayment, we advise you to start preparing and gathering information as soon as possible.

Grant Thornton can assist you with collecting the right information needed, the preparation of the notification form itself and/or filing the form on behalf of your company. 

If you would be interested in our service offering, we can always schedule a meeting free of obligation to discuss this new notification requirement and our service offering.