As regards secondments of expatriates to Belgium we frequently find the situation where the executive continue to be paid by the foreign company which seconds him near the Belgian company (within the framework of a provision of personnel) and curiously when on the basis of a net take home pay basis where taxes are paid by the Belgian company.  

In this context I raise three questions:

Firstly: does the foreign company have to draw up 281.10 fiches ?
Secondly: does the Belgian company have, for the taxes of the executive which it pays, to draw up 281.10 fiches?
Thirdly: does the foreign executive have to introduce a Belgian non-resident tax return because of the fact that a Belgian company pays his taxes and this while at the same time he has already left Belgium?

The purpose of the present one is not to comment my opinion but to give it because I estimate that there are on the market some heretics practices.

I will thus answer in a concise way the three questions which I raise.
With the first question: does the foreign company have to draw up 281.10 fiches? 

 I answer: incontestably yes. 

 With the second question: does the Belgian company have to establish a 281.10 fiche for the taxes of the executive which it pays? 

 I answer: following my opinion yes. 

 With the third question: does the foreign executive have to introduce a Belgian non-resident tax return as a Belgian company pays his taxes while he has already left Belgium ?

I answer: following my opinion yes.

Within the framework of this third question I had to treat recently with one of the “large last big four” which ensured me that it was of current and allowed practice by the tax administration to treat the payment of the taxes of the executive paid by the Belgian company as a non allowed expense without the obligation to file a Belgian non-resident tax return. Challenged by this position this company ensured me to have the written agreement of the administration. When I asked it I obtained an internal report to the company of a meeting with a senior official of the central tax administration, not signed, and going back to 1985 (perhaps 1995) !

These three questions are of major importance as in the absence of fiches and of the introduction of the non-resident tax returns of the executives for the taxes paid by the Belgian company the tax people, correctly, have the right to consider that 300% of the not declared amounts are to be paid in cash despite the presence of tax losses carried forward in the hands of the Belgian company.

Stephen G Hürner - Tax adviser.