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Belgium and the era of international taxation
8/27/13

Due to the size of their country, Belgians are never very far from borders, and because it is the capital of Europe, Brussels attracts a lot of foreign companies and residents. These two factors mean that the issue of international law on Belgian territory needs to be addressed. And yet, up to the present, there was no work on this subject available in bookshops. Isabelle Richelle, Professor of tax law at HEC-School of Management of the University of Liege has filled this void by co-directing a work which analyses different facets of this particular type of taxation.  

Néchin, which is attached to the municipality of Estampuis, is a small village barely seven square kilometers in size, in the extreme West of Belgium. It is a small uneventful corner of the world with a population of 2,000 whose tranquility was shattered when a new resident arrived at the beginning of 2013, one Gérard Depardieu. This Franco-Russian actor came to Belgium as a tax exile. He is far from being the only one to settle in our country. According to the Consulate-General of France in Brussels, more than 200,000 French people have crossed the border into Belgium. Among these are some illustrious names: the Mulliez family (owner of the Auchan distribution group, also based in Néchin), certain members of the Meunier family (Carrefour), Hugues Taittinger (owner of the famous champagne brand of the same name), and Bernard Darty (owner of a chain of electrical appliance stores)…

COVER Fisc intern BelgiqueAside from the “people” aspect, Depardieu and company have indirectly placed international taxation in center stage. “There has indeed been a lot of talk about this subject in recent times”, says Isabelle Richelle, lawyer and Professor of Taxation Law at HEC-ULg.
The publication of this new work, co-directed with Edoardo Traversa (UCL), International taxation in Belgium (1), was not in any way inspired by the current polemic surrounding the subject. “The work stems from the proceedings of a conference organized in May 2010. The fields of research pursued by Edoardo Traversa and myself encompass International and European taxation, and we wanted to increase awareness in this little-known area”, she explains.

This book, published at the beginning of 2013, is therefore a summary of this initiative. It deals in turn with all the questions linked to international taxation in Belgium: the notion of residency, capital gains tax, international movement of workers and prevention of double taxation … “There was no recent work available on the subject. This is quite paradoxical as the country is so small and foreign borders are always never far away”!  This collection brings together the contributions of thirteen specialists from both the academic and private sectors or both. She explains: “It is something that is particular to taxation specialists, many of them have a foot in each camp because what is happening on the ground cannot be ignored. The two sectors are complementary”. It involves extensive scientific studies, combining analyses of practices and principles which are geared more for professionals in the sector than the wider public.

[1] Isabelle RICHELLE, Edoardo TRAVERSA et al. International taxation in Belgium. Recent trends, Brussels, Éditions Larcier, January 2013

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