The information was confirmed by the prosecutor’s office. This judicial failure of the tax authorities is the latest episode in a long saga. In 2010, the European Commission launched a procedure against Belgium because it considered that the tax advantage granted only to Belgian savings accounts infringed the European principle of the freedom to provide services, given that foreign banks, unable to offer such a tax gift, were thus kept out of the Belgian savings market. The European Court of Justice had condemned the Belgian State twice, in 2013 and 2017.
On March 17, 2020, the Ghent Court of Appeal condemned the Belgian State to grant an exemption from withholding tax on Dutch savings accounts, considering that these accounts presented conditions similar to those of regulated accounts in Belgium.
The tax authorities appealed against this ruling. And for good reason: this case is emblematic of the fight between savers and the tax authorities because it was the case that gave rise to the second judgment of the CJEU in 2017, rendered on a preliminary question from the Belgian judge.
The Belgian State’s appeal having been dismissed, the case will now be referred to an appeal court.