23 October 2025 Belgium proposes technical amendments to its Pillar Two legislation
On 9 October 2025, a draft bill was submitted to Parliament introducing certain technical amendments to the Belgian Pillar Two legislation as enacted by the Law of 19 December 2023, which transposed the EU Pillar Two Directive 2022/2523 into Belgian law. The proposed amendments do not affect the calculation of the Top-up Tax but rather aim to clarify and enhance the quality of the Belgian Pillar Two legislation, as well as to align procedural aspects of the Pillar Two legislation with those of the Belgian Income Tax Code (ITC). Furthermore, certain amendments are also introduced in view of the upcoming Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT) return deadline (set at 30 November 2025) and to align the Belgian Pillar Two legislation with the draft QDMTT return that the Belgian Tax Authorities published earlier this year. The draft bill is available here (in Dutch and French). Some of the most important elements of this draft bill are summarized below. As a reminder, Belgium implemented the Pillar Two framework into its domestic legislation at the end of 2023, introducing a QDMTT, an Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) and an Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR). For further details, please refer to these EY Global Tax Alerts: Belgian parliament approves draft bill on Pillar Two, dated 19 December 2023; Belgium further aligns Pillar Two legislation with OECD's Agreed Administrative Guidance, dated 21 May 2024; and Belgian tax authorities issue specific Pillar Two notification form requiring immediate action, dated 23 May 2024. The draft bill amends the definition of key Pillar Two concepts such as the concept of a "group" for Pillar Two purposes. These amendments aim to limit the scope of Constituent Entities (groepsentiteiten in Dutch/entités constitutives in French) to entities that are being consolidated on a line-by-line basis in the consolidated financial statements in accordance with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Model Rules. As a result, joint venture entities (and their affiliates) are, in principle, not to be treated as Constituent Entities but, rather, as a separate category of entities for Pillar Two purposes. Nonetheless, for purposes of the Belgian QDMTT, the draft bill extends the scope of taxpayers so as to include Belgian joint venture entities (and their affiliates), in addition to Belgian Constituent Entities. The draft bill confirms that the QDMTT and the UTPR are to be seen as jurisdictional Pillar Two taxes and that joint and several liability applies for all Belgian Constituent Entities for QDMTT and UTPR purposes. This joint and several liability is extended to joint ventures (and their affiliates) for QDMTT purposes. The current Pillar Two legislation includes some inconsistencies not only due to the manner in which EU Directive 2022/2523 has been implemented in domestic law but also between the Dutch version and the French version of the domestic Pillar Two legislative texts. The draft bill addresses these inconsistencies by, for example, amending the French version of the Pillar Two legislative text by excluding investment entities for UTPR purposes, ensuring alignment with the Dutch version of the Pillar Two legislative text and with EU Directive 2022/2523. The draft bill introduces the new concept of a "General Representative." When multiple Constituent Entities or joint venture entities (and their affiliates) are subject to the QDMTT or the UTPR in Belgium, they will be required to appoint a General Representative responsible for all related compliance requirements. The General Representative will be responsible for all relevant Pillar Two matters, such as the filing of the relevant tax returns, managing quarterly advance Pillar Two payments, ensuring the actual payment of Top-up Taxes and handling administrative matters and will basically act as the go-to taxpayer for the Belgian Tax Authorities with respect to Pillar Two. Taxpayers are free to choose which entity to appoint as General Representative. This can be an entity other than the one that filed the Belgian Pillar Two notification form. If no General Representative is proactively appointed, the entity that will file the tax return or Global anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) Information Return (GIR) in Belgium will automatically be deemed to be the General Representative. If no steps have been taken to appoint a representative and if the filing obligation has not been complied with, criteria have been established to enable the Belgian Tax Authorities to designate an entity as a General Representative. The draft bill provides that all communication related to Pillar Two is to be made exclusively via a secure electronic platform provided by the Federal Public Service (FPS) Finance. To this end, a new module within the MyMinFin platform is foreseen. This communication will be conducted in the official language of the Region where the General Representative is established. Amendments in the draft bill would also align and harmonize the Belgian Pillar Two legislation with some of the general tax concepts and procedures under the ITC, including:
For the proposed amendments discussed above to be implemented, the draft bill must pass Parliament. It will be crucial to monitor these developments as some of the abovementioned amendments are required in view of the upcoming QDMTT return deadline, which based on the current law, is still 11 months after the end of the fiscal reporting year (i.e. 30 November 2025 for calendar-year 2024 taxpayers). Soon after these amendments are implemented, it is expected a Royal Decree outlining the final QDMTT return template will be published in the Belgian Official Gazette and the Belgian Tax Authorities will publish the final XSD scheme for the final QDMTT return, as well as administrative guidance for the QDMTT return. The Pillar Two notification form is due 30 days after the start of the reporting fiscal year in which the multinational enterprise (MNE) group or large-scale domestic group falls within the scope of the Pillar Two rules. The MNE or large-scale domestic group must obtain a Pillar Two tax identification number (P2 TIN). Filing this one-time notification or registration is a prerequisite for complying with local Pillar Two compliance obligations, including making advance tax payments for QDMTT and IIR purposes. If a Top-up Tax liability is anticipated under the QDMTT or IIR, quarterly advance tax payments should be made during the year to which the Top-up Tax applies, to avoid tax surcharges.
Note that these tax prepayment deadlines may differ if the fiscal reporting year does not coincide with the calendar year or a change in fiscal year has occurred. The QDMTT return is due 11 months following the fiscal reporting year-end and, thus, for the first time by the end of November 2025 for calendar-year taxpayers. The QDMTT return is to be populated based on the accounting standard that the UPE used to prepare the consolidated financial statements and is to be filed in the group's presentation currency (unless stated differently). The return must also be prepared and filed when a (transitional) safe harbor can be applied or if no Top-up Tax is due. The return must be completed for subgroup and requires taxpayers to disclose information about all in-scope Belgian entities, the (immediate) shareholder structure of the Belgian entities, any safe harbor applied, etc. The GIR is due 15 months after the fiscal reporting year-end (extended to 18 months for the first filing). Thus, first-time filings are due by the end of June 2026 for calendar-year taxpayers. Further details are anticipated. In principle, a GIR must be submitted in Belgium unless the GIR is filed in one of the following jurisdictions:
A GIR-light return is due 15 months after the fiscal reporting year-end (and 18 months for the first filing). Therefore, first-time filings are due by the end of June 2026 for calendar-year taxpayers. Further details are to be expected. The central filing of a GIR abroad could mean that it will take some time for Belgian Tax Authorities to receive the data needed to establish an IIR and/or UTPR assessment. Therefore, concurrent with submission of the GIR, an additional (local) tax return will need to be prepared and filed in Belgium indicating the amount of IIR and/or UTPR due in Belgium. The template of this form will be determined by a yet-to-be issued Royal Decree. Although legislative action still needs to be taken, the final Belgian QDMTT return template has not yet been released and further technical (filing) guidance from the Belgian Tax Authorities remains outstanding, taxpayers should nevertheless act now to gather and review the information necessary to prepare and file the QDMTT return within a short window of time. Until further notice, the filing due date is still set at 30 November 2025. Entities that need assistance meeting their obligations under the Belgian Pillar Two legislation or have Pillar Two-related questions should contact a qualified tax advisor.
Document ID: 2025-2139 | ||||||
