Dividends, Capital Gains and Income Tax. 9.2.2.1 Belgian resident individuals For Belgian resident individuals who acquire and hold shares as a private investment, the Belgian dividend withholding tax fully discharges their personal income tax liability. They may nevertheless elect to report the dividends in their personal income tax return. Where the beneficiary opts to report them, dividends will normally be taxable at the lower of the applicable withholding tax rate of 27% or at the progressive personal tax rate taking into account the taxpayer’s other declared income, whichever is lower. If the dividends are reported, the dividend withholding tax withheld at source may, under certain conditions, be credited against the personal income tax due and is reimbursable to the extent that it exceeds the personal income tax due. As a general rule, Belgian resident individuals are not subject to Belgian capital gains tax on the disposal of the shares and capital losses are not tax deductible. Belgian resident individuals may, however, be subject to a 33% tax (plus local surcharges) if the capital gain is deemed to be realised outside the scope of the normal management of one’s private estate. A sale of Ordinary Shares which are directly or indirectly part of a stake representing more than 27% of the share capital in the Issuer may, under certain conditions, give rise to a 16,5% tax (plus local surcharges). Effective as of 1 January 2016, a so-called “speculation tax” has been introduced for resident and non- resident individual taxpayers. The tax is due, at a rate of 33%, on the capital gains realised (outside the exercise of a professional activity) on quoted shares, options and warrants or other quoted financial instruments which have been acquired for consideration less than 6 months before the alienation for consideration. The shares, options, warrants or other quoted financial instruments should be quoted (i) on a Belgian or foreign regulated market in the sense of Art. 2, 1st ind., 3° of the Law of 2 August 2002, or (ii) on a multilateral trading facility in the sense of Art. 2, 1st ind., 4° of the Law of 2 August 2002 (provided there is daily trading and a central order book), or (iii) on a trading platform of a third country fulfilling a similar function. For purposes of the speculation tax, the notion “shares” is defined as any shares in companies or assimilated securities as well as share certificates, except shares in collective investment vehicles (as meant by the Law of 3 August 2012), in ...
